A.D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth About Alien Contact (9 page)

No one wants their reputation smeared. Such false and misleading framings of the question quickly convinced the world’s academic and journalistic institutions to run far and fast from the UFO subject. Indeed, in this dance of disinformation, it is sometimes hard to tell whether these institutions lead or follow. Craving public acceptance of their knowledge and authority, very few scientists, professors, or journalists can afford to show interest in the topic. As a result, the secret keeps itself, with only occasional government intervention.

We live in a world in which more than half of us believe that UFOs are real vehicles not of this Earth. Yet, official denial and ridicule continue to rule the day. This may be the greatest cognitive dissonance that any society has ever maintained about something so important.

On November 7, 2006, for 15 minutes during the afternoon rush hour at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, a disc-shaped object hovered silently near the United Airlines terminal, then cut a sharp circular pattern in the cloud bank while zooming off.

A pilot announced the sighting over radio for all grounded planes; a United taxi mechanic moving a Boeing 777 heard the radio chatter and looked up; pilots waiting to take off leaned out their windows and saw the object. There was a buzz inside the airport among United Airlines personnel. One management employee received a radio call about the hovering
object, and ran outside to see it. He then called the United operations center, made sure the FAA was contacted, and drove out on the concourse to speak directly with witnesses.
¹²

United Airlines took statements from the witnesses and instructed them not to discuss the matter further. But one did, and the account soon reached
Chicago Tribune
reporter John Hilkovitch. Soon, the O’Hare UFO story became the most widely read news item in the history of the
Tribune
’s website.

The FAA and United Airlines initially denied any knowledge of the incident. That is, until it became obvious that they knew all about it. Investigating the case was not easy. Journalist Leslie Kean found that most of the witnesses chose to remain anonymous, citing fears of job security. When a recording was finally released of a supervisor’s call to the air traffic control tower, Kean listened. She heard the tower operator and a second man laughing at the witness on the other end. The operator asked the witness if she had been celebrating the holidays early. Such an attitude forced the witness to waste valuable time, stating to another operator in a later call, “I’m not high and I’m not drinking.”

The devastating effectiveness of denial and ridicule cannot be overstated. After years and generations, their effects have fully pervaded our culture. They have enabled intellectual bullies to roam free, to intimidate people who know what they have seen, and keep the truth covered.

Yet, there has always been a fight to end UFO secrecy. During each decade following the Second World War, there have been attempts to unlock the door. Each time, however, there were counter-measures that minimized any gains or defeated the attempt altogether.

In 1953, a classified CIA study known as the Robertson Panel recommended that the intelligence community tightly control UFO-related information reaching the public. This meant not only monitoring the newly formed civilian-based UFO research groups, but using its relationships with media giants (such as Walt Disney Corporation) to debunk UFOs.

Direct evidence has been found to show that, more than a decade later, the Panel’s directives were still being followed through. A 1966 letter by
former Panel member Thornton Page addressed to the former Secretary, Frederick C. Durant, stated that Page had helped organize a recent “CBS TV show around the Robertson Panel conclusions.” This was a reference to the CBS television show
UFOs: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy?
narrated by Walter Cronkite, which had taken a stridently debunking tone toward UFOs.
¹³

The debunking tactic worked up to a point, but never completely. One reason was simply because the UFO operators, whoever they were, did not seem to get the memo that they did not exist. UFO reports within the United States spiked upward during the mid-1960s, even receiving Congressional attention. Something had to be done.

In late 1966, the U.S. Air Force commissioned the University of Colorado to conduct an independent, scientific study of the phenomenon. This became known as the Condon Committee, after the project leader, Dr. Edward U. Condon. From the beginning, the project was plagued by dissension. It wasn’t because Condon was an arch-skeptic on the matter, but that his attitude toward investigating UFOs was anything but scientific. His statements were limited to jokes and obvious crackpot cases. Even skeptics who had taken the time to look into the matter knew there was much more than this.

It became evident to some members that the project was rigged. Condon even admitted as much privately to Dr. David Saunders, one of the project scientists. If he were to receive information confirming UFOs as extraterrestrial, Condon said, he would withhold it from the public and take it personally to the president.

What drove project scientists to mutiny, however, was the discovery of a hidden memo written by Condon’s number-two man, Robert Low. “The trick would be to describe the project so that, to the public, it would appear a totally objective study,” wrote Low, “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.”
¹⁴

When the project scientists discovered this memo, they complained
en masse
to Condon. He then summarily fired them. Incidentally, Robert
Low had been a combat intelligence officer during the Second World War. He also appears to have been a CIA operative who performed clandestine missions for the Agency during the late 1940s. The pervasive relationship between the CIA and academia appears to have played an important role in this project.
¹⁵

By the time the Condon Report was completed in late 1968, it had been cobbled together by a replacement team of scientists. Despite Condon’s and Low’s skeptical lead, the report failed to explain roughly 30 percent of its cases. Condon was barely interested, however. His conclusion, which is all the mainstream press cared about, stated that UFOs were of “no probative value.” In other words, further study of them was unlikely to lead to greater scientific knowledge. He recommended that the Air Force close Project Blue Book, its official investigative project regarding UFOs.

Now that the Condon Report had dismissed UFOs, there was ample scientific justification for ignoring the topic altogether, and ample reason for political and military authorities to deny any interest in it.

But the struggle against UFO secrecy did not end. During the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of pages of government documents relating to UFOs were released via the Freedom of Information Act. Many of these documents proved that the phenomenon was being monitored by military agencies, and that they were very concerned. Some of these documents were embarrassing to agencies which had long denied that they had anything to do with UFOs. Once again, it seemed as though that secrecy surrounding UFOs was in danger.

Then came the Roswell story, adding fuel to the fire. The story had been buried for more than three decades. But it was rediscovered during the late 1970s, and brought a new dimension to the idea of a government cover-up. After all, if an alien craft had been recovered by military authorities, this takes the cover-up to new levels. It would mean that the government could not merely be accused of incompetence in investigating the mystery of UFOs (which many had argued). Because now it would be in possession of alien technology and probably even bodies. For a few years, the momentum seemed to favor those seeking to end UFO secrecy. The Great Wall appeared to be cracking.

By the early 1980s, however, two things stopped this momentum. One was a 1982 Presidential Executive Order signed by President Ronald Reagan. No longer were federal agencies obligated to provide fast and affordable searches for citizens—a serious blow to the Freedom of Information Act. The process became slow and expensive. Certain agencies, such as North American Air Defense (NORAD), were exempted from FOIA. The NSA and CIA also became all-but-impervious to UFO-related requests.

The other development was the influence of military-intelligence elements within the UFO research field. In 1983, and again in late 1984, Air Force intelligence officers operating out of Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, quietly leaked documents to researchers that described the recovery of crashed UFOs and alien bodies. This included the MJ-12 documents. Whatever the actual truth contained within them, researchers have been distracted by the debate over their authenticity. Are they genuine? A hoax? Some incarnation of both?
¹⁶

But then came another attack against secrecy, one that remains important to this day. That is the development of the Internet from around 1990 onward. As late as the 1980s, very few people foresaw the dramatic changes that would soon come. From the beginning, the UFO subject was a prominent part of the Internet. Many researchers found their voice by speaking to thousands—and then millions—of people via cyberspace.

Taking its lead from the Internet, television programming soon offered more sophisticated portrayals of UFOs. Several shows during the 1990s, most notably
Sightings
,
The X-Files
, and
Dark Skies
suggested a darker, grittier side to the story than had been offered in previous television fare. In the process, UFOs and gray aliens entered popular culture. Although watching fictionalized stories is not a cover-up ending activity by itself, it does expand the dialogue about the topic and promotes a desire for the facts. The more that people discuss this, the more they realize that UFOs may actually be real.

Of course, pop culture immersion is a double-edged sword. Public awareness may be raised, but so is the threat of contamination. For
instance, the very success of
The X-Files
in one sense worked against public acceptance of the UFO-ET reality. It became typical to dismiss UFO believers for watching too many episodes of Mulder and Scully. To this day, mocking news stories about UFOs lead with the ubiquitous
X-Files
musical theme.

There is a wide rift between popular belief and “official truth” on this matter. Major media corporations, which have drastically consolidated in recent decades, still control most newspapers, radio, and television. In these venues, with occasional exceptions, UFOs continue to be ignored or ridiculed.

But the Web is another matter. For the most part, it continues to serve as a true voice of the people. It contains a massive trove of UFO information. Some of it is unreliable or just plain wrong, but some of it is excellent and sophisticated. The battle over UFO secrecy, and over information in general, is now on the Web, where major media continues its efforts to increase its share of traffic, and governments continue their efforts to restrict websites in the interest of “national security” or “public safety.”

Such has been a short history of the struggle against UFO secrecy. Whether or not that secrecy was originally justified is a matter of debate. The answer can only come from what is known about the UFO reality and the intentions of the Others. Still, it is reasonable to concede the initial necessity. However, secrecy eventually became policy, buried deeper and deeper, boxes within boxes within boxes.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Ohio State University astronomer J. Allen Hynek served as the lead scientific consultant to the Air Force’s Project Blue Book. Hynek was a team player, publicly debunking many cases for his employer, even at the cost of his personal reputation. In 1966, he speculated that UFO sightings in the state of Michigan might only be marsh gas caused by decaying vegetable matter in the swampy areas. In other words, “swamp gas.” In his later years, Hynek took a more favorable public attitude toward the UFO mystery, and during the 1970s and 1980s was widely held to be the “Dean” of ufologists. Still, he maintained close relationships with the U.S. Air Force throughout his life.

Hynek died of brain cancer in April 1986. The year before, wracked by the physical pain of the disease that was destroying him, he had a tumor removed from his brain. In the recovery room as the anesthesia began to wear off, his thoughts were elsewhere, his pain more emotional than physical. In a frail voice, he was overheard by his wife Mimi asking a question that had nagged at him for decades. “Why can’t they tell me?” he asked. “Even now?”

By the time Hynek passed away, the “they” that would not level with him were no longer exclusively within the United States, nor were they all taking orders from a military chain-of-command. In the same way that the UFO phenomenon is worldwide, the concealment of this explosive information had moved beyond the U.S. governmental structure.

Let us now examine this element of the cover-up, widening our sweep while going deeper at the same time.

An International Cover-Up

Through the years, and with increasing speed, other nations have made public statements about UFOs and released their own data. The nations of France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Norway, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and many others, have either made important statements about UFOs, or released sighting information that is available for anyone to examine.

Britain, France, Brazil, Sweden, and New Zealand, for instance, have released thousands of pages of UFO reports. Even if some of these were for purely bureaucratic reasons (for example, to relieve government agencies from the burden of answering individual requests from citizens), there is no question that their data will be studied by many researchers for some time.