A.D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth About Alien Contact (16 page)

Public Statement or Deathbed Confession

It might seem reasonable that a statement from an informed and presumably reliable source, especially from within the U.S. national security community, might be enough to spark the debate that ignites Disclosure. But such comments have happened before with little impact.

As previously noted, the former Director of the CIA, Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, stated in an open letter to Congress in 1960 that high-ranking Air Force officers were “soberly concerned” about UFOs, but that the policy of secrecy and ridicule made citizens believe UFOs were “nonsense.”

Whether Hillenkoetter was floating a trial balloon for Disclosure at the behest of Majestic, or had broken from them, or was simply speaking as a private citizen—press follow-up was non-existent.

There have been several statements during the first decade of the 21st century by Apollo 14 astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, about his knowledge of a UFO cover-up. Mitchell was the sixth man to walk on the moon, so his statements might be considered worthy of some journalistic gravitas. Mitchell’s most explosive claim has been that two associates of his—individuals of highest national security clearances and of unimpeachable character—described first-hand knowledge of the deeply secret programs to study ET technology and bodies. He also spoke about Roswell as a true case of the crash of an extraterrestrial vehicle.
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The Roswell case has largely been cracked by virtue of the men and women who were there in 1947 who have talked to researchers before their deaths. Roswell researcher Donald Schmitt described his task as “racing the undertaker.” One spectacular end-of-life confession came from Lieutenant Walter Haut, who was the Public Information Officer of the Roswell Army Air Field in 1947. Haut had written the initial press release about the recovery of a “flying disc.” Shortly before his death in 2005, Haut signed a sealed affidavit, which was opened after he died. In a matter-of-fact tone, Haut stated that he saw samples of the Roswell wreckage, which “was unlike any material I had or have ever seen in my life.” He added that he saw several bodies under a canvas tarpaulin. “I am convinced,” he concluded, “that what I personally observed was some type of craft and its crew from outer space.”
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These statements by Hillenkoetter, Mitchell, and Haut all failed to make a dent. They did not generate any journalistic or scientific response, nor even spark a public outcry for more facts.

In addition, there have been several impressive statements made by prominent figures around the world, none of which achieved a true media breakthrough or forced open a public discussion on UFOs.

During the 1950s, the Commanding General of the French Air Forces, Lionel M. Chassin, wrote: “We can therefore say categorically that mysterious objects have indeed appeared and continue to appear in the sky that surrounds us. What intelligence is it that guides these objects?…Human intelligence? Perhaps…nonhuman intelligence? Why not?”
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The British Admiral, Lord Peter Hill-Norton, who was Chief of the Defence Staff of the United Kingdom, also openly discussed the UFO reality. “There is a serious possibility,” he said, “that we are being visited by people from outer space. It behooves us to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want.”
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The French Minister of Defense, Robert Galley, stated during a 1974 radio interview that, “if your listeners could see for themselves the mass of reports coming in from airborne gendarmerie, from the mobile gendarmerie, and from the gendarmerie charged with the job of conducting investigations…then they would see that it is all pretty disturbing.”
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The Spanish General, Carlos Castro Cavero, told a journalist in 1976 that “the nations of the world are currently working together in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon. There is an international exchange of data.”
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Japanese General Akira Hirano, Chief of Staff of Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force, stated in 1977 that “we frequently see unidentified objects in the skies. We are quietly investigating them.”
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Former Canadian Minister of National Defence Paul Hellyer made several statements in the mid-2000s, including “UFOs are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head,” he said, adding, “The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning.”
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In a television interview from May 2010, president of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the only Buddhist Republic in Europe, claimed that he had been taken aboard an extraterrestrial craft 10 years earlier. The abduction occurred, he said, in a Moscow apartment while on official business. Benevolent alien beings took him on a craft to another star system. Ilyumzhinov, incidentally, was also elected President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in 1995, a position he retains as of this writing.
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Any time a head of state, anywhere in the world, makes a claim like this, one might think that people would take notice. Ilyumzhinov’s statement, however, received a modest amount of coverage and then was quickly disabled. BBC News spoke about his “reputation as an eccentric character.” This, apparently, was because he had spent millions of his own dollars to promote chess within his republic. A great deal of speculation followed: Was Ilyumzhinov pulling a publicity stunt? Was he delusional in some way? No mainstream journalist ever asked whether his claims might be true. Ilyumzhinov, after all, was an intelligent and serious man. By making the claim he did, he was exposing himself to certain ridicule. The story quickly died.

Clearly, it will take a very big name making specific statements to tip the public to the breaking point; someone such as Colin Powell, a former U.S. Secretary of State and a man who had been the head of the
U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Imagine a deathbed confession from Powell, or perhaps a signed affidavit from him to be read at his funeral. Such an event would trigger a massive public outcry, and would even shake the media into action. Other names that could qualify as trigger events if they spoke out at the end of their lives include former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush Sr. (who was also CIA Director), and National Security Advisors Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

They could certainly start a discussion. However, even their last-minute statements might not end it. None of them would be immune to counter-attacks. He suffered mental deterioration toward the end of his life, it might be claimed. Or, he had a personal ax to grind.

Ultimately, these individuals are precisely among those who would be most implicated in the cover-up. None of them are likely to lead the charge, or they would have done so already. If one of these prominent individuals speaks out publicly, it will probably be after Disclosure has begun.

Physical Evidence

Just because these strange visitors have not seen fit to meet our block-buster film fantasy of contact and hover above the Earth’s major cities demanding our surrender, they may still, accidentally or on-purpose, leave us something with which we can do business. Indeed, this happened at Roswell and subsequent crash sites.

Clearly, if we could get a civilian lab to study such wreckage, it could prove the existence of the outsiders. For example, researchers Donald Schmitt, Thomas Carey, William Doleman, and others conducted an archeological dig at the Roswell crash site to search for wreckage that the Army may have missed in its cleanup from 1947. In particular, they hoped to find a piece of the so-called “memory metal” that several witnesses described. They did not. Yet, perhaps a piece of hardware continues to hide in the attic of some soldier, something that will not be found until his grandchildren clear it out after his funeral.

It may also be that a new crash occurs. If so, might somebody besides the government gets there first? Or, perhaps a government other than one of the main co-conspirators in the cover-up takes possession of an object,
sends materials to multiple labs for analysis, and alerts the media. Given the dominant reach of the U.S. military and intelligence community, this is a long-shot. Moreover, based on what happened at Roswell where authentic wreckage was swapped out for a weather balloon, the possibility of fraud and illegal activity to prevent materials from being adequately analyzed is a strong likelihood.

There is an entire sub-section of UFO research that focuses on physical traces, not necessarily of crashes, but of landings where either heat or radiation has modified the Earth’s surface. Indeed, thousands of ground trace cases have been studied throughout the years. Many are compelling evidence of unusual phenomena; a handful are of outstanding evidentiary value that something anomalous occurred. Yet, they have not broken through into mainstream discussion.

We have not yet given much attention to alleged alien abductions, but to the extent that some portion of it is true, there are disturbing claims of implants being inserted into the bodies of the abductees. So far, the lab results on some of these are tantalizing but inconclusive. Some appear to be conclusive but not substantiated by multiple labs. That may not always remain the case.

Global Discussion and Declassification

Might some country other than the United States decide to end UFO secrecy?

Several other nations have released their official UFO files; little political forward-motion has come of them. The 1999 release of the French COMETA Report, a sophisticated analysis of many French UFO cases, received precious little mainstream comment. It was the same with the various releases of documents by the United Kingdom, although David Cameron, who became U.K. Prime Minister in 2010, did promise that he would aggressively release more files. Yet, expecting the U.K. to trump the U.S. on UFO Disclosure is fantasy. Some of the U.K. files are intriguing, but most are little more than “raw reports” called in by citizens, which received little to no investigation. They will not be weapons in the battle for Disclosure.

Other nations offer more interesting possibilities. Brazilian officials have occasionally made fascinating statements about the reality of UFOs. In 2010, they cleared the way to study and release UFO reports, including military encounters. In 2009, the Russian Navy announced it would declassify some of its underwater encounters. Both Russia and Brazil have a history of extraordinary military encounters with UFOs; if either of those nations announced that UFOs existed, the landscape would shift.

The greatest challenge to secrecy might come from a country that has practiced deep secrecy for its entire history—China. During the 1990s, just before its transformation into a full-fledged global power, China was still willing to follow the lead of the U.S. on this issue, at least according to C.B. Scott Jones, who for years was a special liaison for Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell. Jones shared Pell’s interest in matters pertaining to UFOs and extraterrestrials. During the early 1990s, Jones was in China on Pell’s behalf, and had occasion to talk to certain Chinese officials with some knowledge of the UFO issue. Impressed by the quiet, sophisticated study they had taken, he asked why they did not publicize some of their findings. Their answer startled him: “We are waiting for the United States to take the lead.”
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Whether this will continue to be the case for China is one of the world’s great unfolding dramas.

But the UFO secret is too important for the United States to abdicate on. If some other nation decided to reveal it, it would be seen as a hostile act. Not only by the United States, but also the secret-keepers who work behind the scenes of governments and nations (that is, Majestic or the Breakaway Group). In fact, it
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be a hostile act, most likely made in order to seize the initiative and move into a position of authority during the coming transformation. Such a decision would have to be carried out in the most extreme secrecy, lest the wrong people learn in advance. One could envision quiet assassinations taking place if things go wrong and the NSA and its allies learn of the plan.

It would also be conceivable that, if all else failed to stop the renegade government from disclosing, the United States might decide to jump ahead on the matter, if only to retain the initiative and its position of primacy among nations. Such a scenario would be worthy of a page-turning spy novel, and it might happen.

Mass Sighting

The event that forces Disclosure could be a mass sighting, one that is recorded independently on radar and videotape by officials, journalists, and the public. Perhaps, too, it prompts a visible military response that cannot be denied.

Through the years, some UFO sightings have combined some of these elements. These include events over Norway (1980s), New York’s Hudson Valley (also 1980s), the Florida town of Gulf Breeze (late 1980s and early 1990s), Belgium (1989–1990), Moscow (1990), Mexico City (for years, starting in 1991), Phoenix (1997), and Stephenville, Texas (2008). They posed a challenge to the forces of secrecy. Some of these produced fascinating video evidence, and received at least some press coverage. In several of the American cases, there were behind-the-scenes pressures to prevent mass panic. Frequently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was on-the-spot, charged with stonewalling public inquiries with absurd explanations that were intended to prevent further press inquiry.

The non-American cases were comparatively easier to deal with. The Soviet Union in 1990 had a media apparatus that could hardly compare with its American counterpart. Mexico’s and Belgium’s media systems were certainly better developed, but it would be unrealistic to have expected either of those nations to flout the wishes of their powerful ally, the United States, by unilaterally ending UFO secrecy.