MUFON Minnesota JournalIssue #181 Sept./Oct. 2016

Note: This issue concentrates mainly on the Disinformation Phenomenon within Ufology – Ed.----------------------------------

Real UFOs and Real DisinformationNick Redfern, March 19, 2014 http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/03/real-ufos-and-real-disinformation/

My recent article on how the UFO subject (and specifically the issue of“alien bodies on ice“) has been used as a tool of disinformation hasprovoked a lot of people to email, Twitter and Facebook me on thisthorny, controversial issue. And many of those same people seem to bemissing the point. Hardly surprising, since disinformation is a murkymixture of fact and fiction. It’s chiefly designed to confuse the targetedindividual or group – whether the Nazis during the Second World War,the Soviets at the height of the Cold War, or, in today’s world, maniacswho want to provoke terror.

But, to what extent has the UFO phenomenon been used andmanipulated to confuse both enemy targets and the UFO researchcommunity? The answer is: to a huge extent! If you read mylatest article on this very subject (as linked to above), you’ll know itfocused on claims that, in the mid-1950s, the U.S. Air Force secretlycommissioned the creation/manufacture of a number of very lifelike“dead alien bodies.”

Supposedly, they were used in a strange operation to (A) try andsmoke-out Soviet agents/sympathizers in the United States; and (B)confuse the Russians regarding the true extent of U.S. knowledge of theUFO phenomenon. Indeed, convincing the highest echelons of theKremlin that the U.S. had acquired alien bodies and extraterrestrialtechnology might very well have been perceived as a great way tofrighten and unsettle the Reds.

But, when it comes to UFOs, things didn’t start in 1955.

According to a Technical Report prepared by the Air Force’s UFOstudy-program, Project Grudge, way back in August of 1949: “Uponeliminating several additional incidents due to vagueness andduplication, there remain 228 incidents, which are considered in thisreport. Thirty of these could not be explained, because there was foundto be insufficient evidence on which to base a conclusion.”

Certainly the most notable entry in the document appears in theRecommendations section. It states, and I quote: “…that PsychologicalWarfare Division and other governmental agencies interested in

psychological warfare be informedof the results of this study.”

Minnesota Mufon Meetings

Sat., Sept. 10th & Sat., Oct. 8th

2pm - 5pm

New Brighton FamilyService Center Room 224400 - 10th St. NW (located 1/4-mile S.W.of Hwy 694 and 35W.)

PARK FREE! The building is designated as non-smoking.

See map on back cover(Note: The building has no special security, so you can come and go as you please and smoke outdoors. There is also an elevator.)

In this Issue:

Real Disinformation - Page 1 CIA UFO Disinfo - Page 3 Disinfo Spreads Fear - Page 4 UFO Deception - Page 6 William Moore - Page 14 MNMUFON Info - Page 20 Meeting Map - Page 21

1

It’s important to note that psychological warfare isan integral part of disinformation. Thus, we see aconnection between disinformation, UFOs andpsychological warfare as far back as the 1940s.

Moving on, a 1952 document from CIA directorWalter B. Smith to the Director of the PsychologicalStrategy Board, titled Flying Saucers, reveals: “I amtoday transmitting to the National Security Councila proposal in which it is concluded that theproblems connected with unidentified flying objectsappear to have implications for psychologicalwarfare as well as for intelligence and operations. Isuggest that we discuss at an early board meetingthe possible offensive or defensive utilization ofthese phenomena for psychological warfarepurposes.”

Then there is the matter of the infamous, allegedUFO crash at Aztec, New Mexico in March 1948. It’sa story made famous in Frank Scully’s 1950 book,Behind the Flying Saucers. Many researchers of theUFO phenomenon (although certainly not all, suchas Scott and Suzanne Ramsey) dismiss Aztec asnothing but a hoax, one perpetrated by a shadybusinessman named Silas Newton.

There is an interesting aspect to the Newton/Aztecstory worth noting: by his own admittance, andafter the Aztec story surfaced, Newton was visitedby two representatives of “a highly secret U.S.Government entity” (as the late Karl Pflock wordedit). Those same representatives told Newton, in nouncertain terms, that they knew his Aztec story wasa complete lie, but, incredibly, they wanted him tokeep telling the tale to just about anyone andeveryone that would listen.

This led Pflock to wonder: “Did the U.S.Government or someone associated with it useNewton to discredit the idea of crashed flyingsaucers so a real captured saucer or saucers couldbe more easily kept under wraps?”

And this is where disinformation becomes a trickyarea to fathom: just because officialdom mayspread a spurious story about crashed UFOs anddead aliens, doesn’t mean there aren’t real crashedUFOs and dead aliens hidden somewhere! In thatsense, it’s not necessarily an “either/or” situation.

For many years, rumors have circulated to theeffect that in the early 1950’s a UFO crashed on theisland of Spitzbergen, Norway. And that undercircumstances similar to those that allegedly

occurred at Aztec, New Mexico, the unearthlycraft was recovered along with its deceased aliencrew. It transpires that a reference to this case canbe found in a UFO-themed document that surfacedunder the terms of the U.S. Freedom of InformationAct from the National Security Agency.

The NSA’s copy is slightly different to copies of thesame document that have been declassified by theAir Force, the Department of State, and the Army.Someone in the NSA – unfortunately, we don’tknow who – identified the Spitzbergen story in thedocument as a “plant.” As to who seeded the storyand why, that’s another matter entirely, one that isprobably now lost to the fog of time.

And if you think such things were merely the workof spy-masters in the early years of the Cold War,you’re dead wrong.

In June 2001, Britain’s Independentnewspaper noted that Richard Tomlinson, formerlyof Britain’s MI6, had revealed that: “…during therun-up to the 1992 [United Nations] SecretaryGeneral elections, [MI6] mounted a smearoperation against the Egyptian candidate, BoutrosBoutros-Ghali…” Although the operation failed,reported the newspaper, one of the ways that MI6tried to make Boutros-Ghali look “unbalanced” wasby planting stories “claiming that he was a believerin the existence of UFOs and extra-terrestrial life.”

So, where does all of this leave us? I’ll tell youwhere: massively confused! And that’s the point:ensure that whoever is the target of thedisinformation operation in question is used andmanipulated according to the rules of those runningthe show.

Now, a lot of people in Ufology get all hot andbothered and defensive when a discussion of UFOdisinformation surfaces. They assume, quitewrongly, that if someone says there is massiveUFO disinformation afoot, it somehow implies theperson is saying the phenomenon has zero meritoutside of the world of psychological warfare –which is nonsense! Clearly, there is a real UFOphenomenon. There are way too many reports –and highly credible reports, I should stress – for theentire mystery to be born out of the mindsof disinformation strategists.

The problem, however, is that where thedisinformation has succeeded is in sowing the seedsof doubt over this case, or over that case. And,

2

sometimes, that leads people to then wonder aboutthe merits (or the lack of merits) of other cases. So,what we end up with is (A) the UFO researchcommunity confused and unsure about what’s realand what isn’t, and (B) those manipulators behindthe scenes eagerly rubbing their hands together andcongratulating each other on a job well done.

So, yes, there is UFO disinformation – and a hell ofa lot if it. But, here’s the important thing: there arereal UFOs, too…

Ex-CIA chief admits to UFOdisinformation

posted on Feb, 14 2015 @ 10:23 AM http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread105551

2/pg1

I decided to write this thread in response to a recentthread about comments one of Obama's advisersrecently made about UFO's here .

People keep on demanding "proof". Can you provethat your great great great grandfather ever lived?

If ET controlled UFO's DO exist, it is obvious thegovernment has heavily covered it up. Witnessesare threatened, intimidated and sometimes killed,physical evidence taken, photos and videos used tobe confiscated but now just given ridiculousexplanations...so hard proof can be difficult toproduce if it has been taken from you or you havebeen threatened.

Of course some kind of evidence is needed. So whatwe have is literally hundreds of thousands ofwitnesses over the past seven decades, from justabout every country on Earth, and a significantpercentage of them highly credible. Witnesstestimony is accepted in court, why is it held to ahigher standard for UFO testimony?

Here we have an Ex-CIA chief and navy admiralsaying the government has engaged in a disinfocampaign with UFO's (from the New York Times,see source link below):

"BUT THROUGH OFFICIAL SECRECY ANDRIDICULE, MANY CITIZENS ARE LED TOBELIEVE THE UNKNOWN FLYING OBJECTSARE NONSENSE"

See that, OFFICIAL SECRECY AND RIDICULE

If an ET race or races is interacting with our planet,it is probably the most important event to happento humans in human history. It needs to beinvestigated and discussed openly. Please movepast the "sham" of demanding proof, I believe thatis just another part of the "OFFICIAL RIDICULE",or just ignorance.

Scientists and investigators will investigate andresearch a topic if they think it worthwhile, theyknow the investigation and research comes first. Itis sheer idiocy to demand "proof" before an honestand open investigation has taken place. And yes,Bluebook was a sham, but that is a topic for anotherthread. Anyway, Hillenkoetter obviously knewabout Bluebook, and for him to make the commentsabove proves that Bluebook was a psy-op, just likeSETI.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/600228nytimes

As a footnote I wanted to add this - posters keepasking why people draw the non-human conclusionfrom genuine UFO reports.

Well, as it says above in the article, some high-ranking Air Force officers are SOBERLY concernedabout UFO's. Do you think they would beconcerned if they thought UFO's were just spacedebris or swamp gas? No, they are concernedbecause of the extra-terrestrial implications. If whatthey have seen is enough to concern high rankingAir Force officers, why isn't it enough to concernthe ordinary public? Posters on here? Do people onhere know more than Ex-CIA directors and highranking Air Force officials?

3

How Disinformation Experts SpreadFear About UFOs - Anne Strieber

http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1538.htm

Summary: Bill Moore, UFO investigator andauthor, has learned a great deal about thegovernment coverup of UFO information over theyears. A large part of this coverup has to do withwhat intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, refer toas DISINFORMATION.

Bill Moore, UFO investigator and author, haslearned a great deal about the government coverupof UFO information over the years. A large part ofthis coverup has to do with what intelligenceagencies, such as the CIA, refer to asDISINFORMATION.

In his speech to the MUFON convention in LAsVegas on July 1, 1989, Mr. Moore had this to sayabout the subject: "Disinformation is a strange andbi- zarre game. Those who play it are completelyaware that an operation's success is dependentupon dropping false information upon a target or`mark', in such a way that the person will accept itas truth and will repeat, and even defend it toothers as if it were true. One of the key factors inany successful disinformation scheme is that itmust contain some elements of truth in order to becredible. Once the information is believed, the workof counterintelligence is complete. They can simplywithdraw in the confidence that the dirty work ofspreading their poisonous seeds will be done byothers."

Some of the most frightening and bizarre storiesabout UFOs and visitors may well be lies thatoriginated with disinformation experts and areinnocently spread by gullible people who do notbother to check facts, but who love a good story.And some of the people telling these tales may notbe so innocent- they may be disinformation expertsthemselves.

While there is no final proof that the U.S.government has sponsored disinformationprograms concerning UFOs, the circumstantialevidence is growing stronger every day. It is amatter of record that at least one individual spreaddisinformation in this field while working as agovernment employee in an intelligence-relatedjob, and the revelations of Bill Moore and othersindicate that false stories have been planted amongUFO researchers for years.

Certainly something strange happened outside ofRoswell, New Mexico in July of 1947, when AirForce officials retrieved some debris withproperties that did not fit any known technology.According to Colonel Jesse Marcel, who gave anumber of videotaped interviews before he died,and who was responsible for the recovery of thisdebris, the fact of its extreme strangeness wascovered up by the Air Force.

This coverup took place when the cold war was juststarting and America was entering a period of near-paranoia over the issue of Soviet expansionism.America's obsession with secrecy began whenPresident Truman created the Central IntelligenceAgency in 1947 in order to obtain information aboutthe threats being made by the Communists after thesecond world war. Ever since then, Americans havebeen told less and less about what is really going onin our government. As Norman Thomas, whounsuccessfully ran for President many times,said,`Where the secrets start, the republic stops.' Wemay live in a democracy, but we cannot have aneffect on policy which we know nothing about.

When Bill Moore became a director of the nowdormant APRO (Aerial Phenomena ResearchOrganization) in 1979, he became acquainted withthe work being done by Paul Bennewitz and Dr. LeoSprinkle with a young woman who rememberedbeing abducted and witnessing cattle mutilations.Bennewitz had become convinced that aliens hadimplanted some sort of communication device inthe woman's head, and that they were using thisdevice to control her actions.

Since Paul Bennewitz was a physicist, he had acertain amount of electronics equipment at hisdisposal, and he set out to determine whether hecould detect the electromagnetic signals he believedaliens must be using to exercise control over theiralleged victims, and to try to devise a way to shieldvictims from the control of these signals. He toldAPRO in late '79 that he believed he had succeededin detecting low frequency signals from UFOs andhad begun to make calculations about the sort ofelectronic and propulsion technology employed bythe aliens. He also began to take pictures of strangelights maneuvering in the vicinity of the ManzanoNuclear Weapons Storage Facility, which is locatedto the east of Kirtland Air Force Base inAlbuquerque. Bennewitz had a perfect view of theweapons base from his home in the Four Hillssection of the city.

4

Bill Moore says, "In early September, 1980, I wasapproached by a well- placed individual within theintelligence community who claimed to be directlyconnected to a high-level project dealing withUFOs. This individual told me that he spoke for asmall group of similar individuals who wereuncomfortable with the government's continuingcover-up of the truth and indicated that he and hisgroup would like to help me with my research intothe subject in the hope and expectation that I mightbe able to help them find a way to change theprevailing policy and get the facts to the publicwithout breaking any laws in the process. The manwho acted as liason between this group and myselfwas an Air Force Office of Special Investigationsagent named Richard Doty. I knew I was beingrecruited, but at that point I had no idea for what."

It soon became apparent to Bill that he wasexpected to supply information to this individualabout the activities of Paul Bennewitz and APRO inexchange for being given `sensitive' (or presumablyclassified) information on UFOs. Bill realized that,whatever it was Bennewitz was involved with, hewas the subject of considerable interest on the partof not one but several government agencies, andthat they were actively trying to defuse him bypumping as much disinformation through him ashe could possibly absorb. Bill decided to play alongwith these government agents so he could learnmore about the disinformation process bywitnessing it firsthand.

Bennewitz, for his part, continued to make whatseemed to be increasingly bizarre claims, most ofwhich gave every appearance of having beeninfluenced by a heavy blanket of disinformationmixed with a small, but significant, amount oftruth. The problem was always one of keeping alevel head and trying to sort the fact from fantasy -something which Paul Bennewitz was having a hardtime doing.

"By 1981", according to Bill, "Paul was gatheringdata from a variety of sources and amalgamating itwith information being fed to him by a number ofgovernment people in whom, for some reason, heseemed to have an implicit and abiding faith. Thestory that emerged from this melange of fact,fiction, fantasy, here-say, hard data andgovernment disinformation was absolutelyincredible! Yet somehow, Paul believed in it and setout on a one-man crusade to tell the world thatmalevolent aliens from space were in league withour government to take over the planet. What had

begun in 1979 as an effort to learn whether thebehavior of a woman who claimed she had beenabducted by UFO aliens was being influenced bysome sort of radio remote control had, in the spaceof less than three years, blossomed into a tale whichrivaled the wildest science fiction scenario anyonecould possibly imagine."

Bennewitz continued with his experimentsregarding the radio signals he was receiving and thefilm footage he was getting of unusual lights. Bothof these phenomena seemed to be largely connectedto activities within the Kirtland AFB SandiaNational Labs complex just south of the city ofAlbuquerque. Bill feels that Bennewitz definitelywas receiving some sort of low frequencyelectromagnetic signal on his equipment, and isequally certain that his photos and films depictedunusual lights, most of which were filmed whilehoovering or maneuver- ing over theKirtland/Sandia complex. The real question iswhether this evidence was sufficient to concludethat either of these phenomena was directly relatedto UFO activity, or whether, in fact, the strangethings he was witnessing had to do with someclassified government research project going onnear- by. Either reason would be a goodexplanation for the government's counter-intelligence activities in this case.

Bill reports that government surveillance of Paul'sactivities, some of which Paul was astute enough todetect and some of which Bill learned about butPaul seemed unaware of, included wire taps andeven break-ins. "Paul took these activities as proofpositive that he was onto something big.Unfortunately, he seemed largely unaware that thesame people who would go to such lengths to spy onhim also had the capabilities to mount an effectivedisinformation campaign."

In any case, by mid-1982, Paul's story containedvirtually all of the elements found in the currentcrop of rumors being circulated around the UFOcommunity by people such as John Lear. Therewere two groups of aliens, one malevolent, onemore friendly. The malevolent ones, which hereferred to as the `greys', were really in control, andthey were the ones responsible for the cattlemutilations, for human abductions and theimplanting of sinister control devices in humans,for having first made and then broken a secrettreaty with the U.S. government, for maintaining asecret underground base in Dulce, New Mexico, andfor having supplied the U.S. government with alien

5

space hardware and weapons which ultimatelyproved defective or which were caused to crash,thus leaving human civilization virtuallydefenseless against invasion.

Bill Moore says, "I know that this whole body ofinformation if false, be- cause I was in a position toobserve much of the disinformation process as itunfolded. And I can tell you it was effective, becauseI watched Paul become systematically moreparanoid and more emotionally unstable as he triedto assimilate what was happening to him. He hadguns and knives all over his house, had installedextra locks on his doors, and he swore that `they'(meaning the aliens) were coming through his wallsat night and injecting him with hideous chemicalswhich would knock him out for long periods oftime. He began to suffer increasing bouts ofinsomnia. I knew at that time that he was not farfrom an inevitable nervous collapse. His health haddeteriorated, he had lost considerable weight, hishands shook as if from palsy, and he lookedterrible. I tried to counsel him to drop the entireUFO thing before his health was completelydestroyed. Not long afterward I heard he had beenhospitalized and was under psychiatric care."

The disinformation campaign was also effectivebecause it insured that no one in the mainstreammedia or scientific or scientific community wouldpay any attention to the outlandish claims that PaulBennewitz made. Thus the elements of truth thatwere contained in his experiments became lost tothe public forever.

Were UFOs ever actually involved with all of this?Bills says we may never really know. PerhapsBennewitz had merely stumbled upon signalsgenerated from some sophisticated, high-levelgovernment project whose security people hit uponUFO-related disinformation as the ultimate cover.Or perhaps he discovered a real government UFOproject which elected to disinform him to protectwhat they were really doing. The one thing that Billdoes know from first-hand experience is that therewas a tremendous amount of governmentdisinformation involved, and that a largeproportion of what we are hearing today aboutmalevolent aliens, underground bases and secrettreaties with the U.S. government has its rootsfirmly planted in the Bennewitz affair. "The currentcrop of disinformation is really nothing new; it'sjust that a different crop of people are spreading itthis time around," says Moore.

From this experience, and from his other research,Bill has come to the conclusion that the U.S.government counterintelligence people haveconducted an on-again, off-again campaign ofdeception and disinformation against the Americanpublic about the UFO phenomenon for more than40 years. He feels that the people who have beenresponsible for the operations are highly placedindividuals within the intelligence community.There are several possible explanations for thissituation. One, the disinformation could be asecurity cover for a real UFO project which exists ata very high level and is known only to an e- lite few.Two, it could be a security process designed todivert attention away from real, but non-UFOrelated, high tech research and developmentprojects. Three, it may be a manipulation by UFOaliens themselves as part of a long term plan togradually make human society aware of theirpresence here. Bill's position is that the truth is bestdescribed in terms of a combination of all of theabove.

It's a fact that somebody powerful is spreadingdisinformation about UFOs. It would be foolish tobelieve any story on the basis of too little evidence.On the other hand, those people who haveexperienced the visitors first-hand need not allowthemselves to be convinced that their experienceswere mere hallucinations.

People who have encountered the visitors know thevery real fear that comes from confronting theunknown. There is no reason why they should haveto endure the additional terror of being inundatedby sensationalized rumors about aliens that beganten years ago with a government disinformationcampaign against one individual.

UFOs, DISINFORMATION AND DECEPTIONSimon Harvey-Wilson

http://greyfalcon.us/restored/UFOdeption.htm

Many ufologists claim that the US and UKgovernments are doing secret research into UFOswhile telling their citizens that they do not exist. Ifthis is true, an understanding of deception anddisinformation techniques may make us lessvulnerable to being fooled. For obvious reasons fewgovernments publish much information about suchtechniques. However, deception is frequently usedduring wars, so by studying some historicalexamples we might learn about what is happening

6

today. Because official disinformation is not theonly source of confusion about UFOs, this articlewill also discuss other sources

Misleading information

Deception is to create a misleading impression inyour target audience by your actions. It issomething that you do to mislead whoever may beobserving you, either on a small or large scale.Deception might be directed at the intelligenceservices of a country that you are at war with, or atyour own citizens during peacetime. Mostintelligence services see little difference betweenwar and peace time, and unfortunately if you wishto fool the international community you generallyhave to mislead your own citizens as well.Deception techniques take advantage of the factthat people tend to think that information they hadto ferret out is more likely to be true than if it werehanded to them on a platter.

An example of deception was revealed in an articlein the Sunday Times entitled “Germ war reportsexposed as hoax” (1998). The report tells howreleased Russian intelligence files had revealed thatin 1952 the North Koreans had deliberately infecteda couple of their own citizens with plague bacilli,and then used tissue samples from their bodies toconvince the world that the Americans were usinggerm warfare in the Korean conflict. The UnitedStates had unsuccessfully denied the claimsbecause, as the article says, “Historians hadquestioned whether the Koreans and Chinese couldhave mobilized thousands of people and fakedevidence from scores of doctors, scientists andofficials. But the new papers show they did exactlythat.” This illustrates that some governments willoccasionally go to inordinate lengths to mislead.

Disinformation is the release or leaking ofmisleading information. I think it was Churchillwho claimed that to keep something secretsometimes one needed “To surround the truth witha tissue of lies.” By releasing three partsdisinformation to one part truth you can confuseand mislead your target audience. This is especiallyimportant with the UFO phenomenon because,unlike technical secrets, which can be kept lockedup, UFOs appear in public so a completely differenttechnique is needed to keep them secret.

UFOs were probably first noticed by Westerngovernments soon after WW II. It is not within thescope of this article to discuss why the authorities

decided to keep them secret, but once that decisionhad been made, the best way to do it was obvious. Ifthey could not make UFOs disappear physically, thesolution was to make them disappearpsychologically using perception management orwhat the military calls psy-ops (psychologicaloperations). Regardless of what many people wereseeing, they simply decided to define UFOs out ofexistence, and ridicule the minority who did claimto see them. I believe that it will eventually beshown that the UFO cover-up has been the mostsuccessful deception campaign in human history.Ironically, it continues to be so effective that thosein authority may be concerned that the public willrefuse to accept the truth even if concrete evidenceis presented to them. In other words, the continuedUFO secrecy may partly be a result of theeffectiveness of the earlier secrecy.

For ease of recall, the categories used in deceptionand disinformation involve five verbs beginningwith the letter D. These are: to deny, distract,demean, deceive, and divide, and it is not hard tothink of examples from the history of ufology thatillustrate each of them. These techniques are alsofrequently used in politics, especially aroundelection times.

Military History

Some might challenge the suggestion that a UFOdeception campaign could succeed to the extentthat many ufologists claim. However there havebeen several historical precedents that demonstratehow to keep a secret under difficult circumstances.Michael Lindeman (1999) gives us the example ofthe US government concealing the fact that GermanU-boats were attacking merchant ships off theeastern American coast during the early years ofWW II. “Today few Americans have even theslightest notion that between December, 1941 andSeptember, 1942, 292 vessels were torpedoed andhundreds of merchant seaman lost, most withinsight of American beaches”. Wreckage and bodiesthat washed up on the shore were impounded bythe military, newspapers were persuaded not topublish stories about it, and “those who were in thegovernment information loop on this policy werestrongly informed that any breach of security wouldbe considered treason, a crime punishable byexecution”. Not surprisingly the information wasnot made public. There is every reason to suspectthat a similar policy exists today about UFOs. Thequestion we need to ask is, when is it going to end?

7

There are a few interesting books about deceptionthat I would recommend. None of them mentionUFOs, but they give numerous historical exampleswhich reveal the imagination, cunning, ruthlessnessand audacity that exponents of deception anddisinformation employ. The first is The DeceptionPlanners: My Secret War (1980) by DennisWheatley who was a famous best-selling author atthe outbreak of WW II. He describes how hebecame a deception planner in the offices of theBritish War Cabinet, and reveals how importantsuch planners were to the war effort. They hadaccess to all War Cabinet documents and came upwith some amazing ideas to mislead the Germansinto sending troops to places where they would dothe least harm. Wheatley clearly sets out the basicguidelines of deception and illustrates them withexamples. It does not take much imagination to seethat those rules could easily be used today inmisleading the public and other governments aboutwhat the USA really knows about UFOs. This is animportant point. For example, Stanton Friedmanclaims that by spreading convincing cold warrumors that they had mastered UFO technology,the USA might have deterred other governmentsfrom using that same technology to attack them(Lindeman, 1991, p.26).

A more recent book on deception is The Art ofMilitary Deception (1997) by Mark Lloyd whichgives an historical overview of the subject fromancient times to the present. Some of his examplesshould be of interest to ufologists. During WW IIthe British set up propaganda radio stations that,while actually based in England, pretended to beGerman stations transmitting from Europe. One ofthem was specifically aimed at German U-boatcrews. It played the latest German dance music, hadrequest programs and, “contained dedications forgenuine birthdays and anniversaries gleaned fromcensored mail passing between German navyprisoners of war and their families”. Among themusic, news stories and highly detailed reports ofbomb damage in Germany was, “slipped subversiveinformation, morale-sapping innuendo and highlyaccurate details of the situation on the home front”.As Lloyd points out, “The effect on U-boat crews,cramped, in constant danger and thousands ofmiles from home in the mid-Atlantic, can well beimagined”. As this example reveals, rather thansimply disseminating false information, a deceptionsource may aim to become a trusted organ ofinfluence with the purpose of gently guiding theirtarget audience’s views in a desired direction. To dothis they do have to publish some accurate

information. Conspiracy theorists generally assumethat the US government monitors UFO researchers,and may at times wish to divert their attention awayfrom areas of higher national security significancetowards less threatening topics. One way of doingthis would be for them to have secretly funded apublic UFO research organization or magazinewhose covert intention would have been tocentralize the attention of ufologists, keep themdistracted and amused with low level, narrowlyfocused ‘scientific’ information, while actuallydiscussing very little of genuine relevance. In otherwords, ufologists perhaps need to pay attention notto what some of today’s UFO magazines are gettingexcited about, but rather what it is that theyconsistently do not discuss. We also need to realizethat there is every chance that a few leadingufologists are not as dedicated to revealing the truthas they might appear. We need to distinguishhowever between what we could call double-agentufologists and those who publish misleadinginformation in order to help sell their books orpromote themselves, although pretending to be thelatter would be ideal cover for those who wereactually the former.

Another book that reveals the high level of secrecyand planning that goes into covert deceptionactivities is Op JB: The Last Great Secret of theSecond World War (1996) by ChristopherCreighton, which describes how British Intelligencesecretly smuggled Martin Bormann, Hitler’s privatesecretary and executor, out of the ruins of Berlin atthe end of the war and gave him a new identity inEngland, despite the worldwide manhunt for him.This was done in exchange for Bormann givingthem access to the vast fortune that the Germanshad looted from across Europe. The book alsoreveals the absolute ruthlessness used to keep vitalinformation secret. For example, Creighton claimsthat, as an undercover British agent, he wasrequired to blow up a Dutch submarine and all itscrew just to prevent them from revealing thatBritish and US Intelligence had been forewarned ofthe Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Thissuggests that, as a last resort, people might be killed(‘terminated with extreme prejudice’) to protectimportant enough UFO information, provided thatit could be done in a deniable fashion.

A final recommendation is the book By Way ofDeception: The Making & Unmaking of a MossadOfficer (1990) by Victor Ostrovsky & Claire Hoy.Once again UFOs are not mentioned, but I believethat anyone that is serious about ufology needs to

8

read a few such books to learn, firstly just how littlethey previously knew about deception, and secondlyhow imaginative, ruthless, cynical, well-trained andwell-funded the professionals who work in suchfields really are. Unfortunately, and with nodisrespect intended, this means that, in comparisonto those managing the UFO cover-up, the averageufologist is an absolute amateur, and we need torealise that if the authorities really want to misleadus, there is probably very little we can do about it.

Examples

Let us look at a few examples of possible UFOdeception.

In his book Above Top Secret (1989) Timothy Gooddescribes a 1962 incident where some US navyaviators, who were temporarily at Wright-PattersonAir Force base, entered a hanger looking for sportsequipment to use during their daily fitness workout.Once inside they were stunned to find a flyingsaucer-shaped object about four metres widesuspended by two engine test stands. It was ropedoff and surrounded by eight guards. They werepromptly told to leave “by an air police sentry witha sub-machine gun”, and later the senior pilot wasreprimanded by his general for breaking security.

There are several points to be made about thisincident. If the story is true, we could ask whysomething that is so secret that it warrants eightguards is kept in an unlocked room. Surely a bettermeans of security would have been to lock the doorand put the guards outside, thus ensuring that theytoo did not see what was inside? Secondly, if onedidn’t want people to see the UFO, why rope it off?A screen would have been far more effective. Thestandard of security in this example was soincompetent that whoever was supervising it shouldhave been promptly court-martialed, unless it wasdeliberately designed that way.

I do not know if this scenario was actually anexample of deception, but we could ask whatpurpose the incident might have served if it was? By‘accidentally’ allowing the pilots to see the craftsurrounded with armed guards, and thenaccentuating the importance of the situation with asecurity reprimand from their general, the wholeincident probably became indelibly etched in theirminds. Timothy Good writes that, once outside, thepilots “had reassured each other that the good oldUS had developed, or had all along, flying saucersin service”, and the story then found its way into his

best-selling UFO book for anyone to read. So muchfor secrecy! Perhaps the whole episode wascarefully designed to reassure US servicemen, andlater the public, that the Pentagon had the UFOsituation under control, even if it didn’t.

Even if various government are involved in UFOdeception, their motives and methods may varyconsiderably. The apparent abduction of FranckFontaine at Cergy-Pontoise on the outskirts of Parisin November 1979 is a good example. The story isquite complex and is described in several UFObooks.

Franck and a couple of his friends were loadingtheir car with clothes to sell on their stall in amarket about sixty kilometers away. They had gotup before dawn and, while the others brought theclothes down from their flat, Franck remained inthe car to stop it stalling. They then saw a brilliantlyshining UFO and several smaller lights near the carand, after some confusion, Franck was found to bemissing. The incident was reported to the policeand received nation-wide publicity. One week laterFranck reappeared near where he had disappearedand was amazed to discover that he had beenmissing for so long.

Most books that mention it leave the case open,however in Jacques Vallee’s book Revelations: AlienContact and Human Deception (1991) we get quitea different story.

Vallee quotes an unnamed official from French AirForce headquarters who, in November 1980,admitted that the Cergy-Pontoise abduction hadactually been carried out by the French governmentin order to observe the reactions and behaviour ofthe police, media, scientific investigators and thepublic. The abduction had been authorized by amember of the French cabinet and no more thanfifteen people knew what had happened. FranckFontaine had been grabbed, kept drugged in asecure place for a week and then returned to wherehe had been abducted without knowing what hadreally happened to him.

Vallee advises that, to eliminate such officialdeception in future, abductees should be promptlychecked for syringe marks and given blood andurine tests to check for any knockout drugs. IfVallee’s report is true, we have the ironic situationof a leading Western government trying to fool thepublic into thinking that UFO abductions do exist,rather that their usual denials. The question that

9

ufologists may need to ask themselves now, iswhether other countries carry out similar fakeabductions to assess public reactions, and if so, howoften do they do it?

In 1997, Sydney engineer and inventor Ted Roachpublished a small book entitled The Physics of AFlying Saucer. Roach believes that the propulsion ofUFOs involves discoveries about a unified fieldtheory and the nature of time. He describes how hehad submitted several patent applications to theAustralian Industrial Property Organization (AIPO)for, “ten inventions for machines in gravitational,electric and magnetic fields” and claims that, “Thepending patent comprised the physics of flyingsaucers and other applications using the UnifiedField Theory and six dimensions of space time”.

In reply to his application Roach received a letterfrom the AIPO which said that, “due to the natureof the invention and the possible military interest,the applications have been forwarded to theDepartment of Defense and the AustralianSafeguards Office for a determination as to whetheror not a publication prohibition order should beplaced on the inventions” (p.116). In the meantimeRoach was told not to reveal details of hisinvention. A couple of months later his applicationwas cleared by both those authorities, and a copy ofthe relevant letter appears in the back of his book.

Most people would probably have never heard ofthe Australian Safeguards Office, however it is wellknown to many ufologists and ‘free energy’researchers, that patent applications in mostWestern countries can result in a new inventionbeing confiscated by the authorities and aninformation blackout being placed on the subject.This generally only happens if the Safeguards Officebelieves that the invention has genuine nationalsecurity implications, otherwise there is no point inclassifying it.

So what are we to conclude from Roach’s case? IfRoach is telling the truth, can we assume that hewas allowed to proceed with his patent applicationbecause someone decided that his inventionwouldn’t work, or was of no relevance? As Roachpoints out, if UFOs don’t exist why should anyonebe interested in his invention? Are we to concludetherefore that the Australian Department ofDefence and the Australian Safeguards Office doknow that UFOs exist? Or should we be cautiousand suspect that someone behind the scenes sawRoach’s patent application as an ideal opportunity

to muddy the waters a bit more by pretending to beinterested in his inventions, confiscating them for afew months, and then handing them back knowingthat he would probably write about the incident in abook? I do not know the answer to these questions,but it may be possible that, if UFOs do exist, theauthorities do not want any information about theirpropulsion systems to be made public for reasons ofnational security, and so are obliged to interceptpatent applications such as Roach’s, just in casethey are on the right track.

There are numerous examples where misleadingUFO-related information appears not to have beengenerated by disinformation experts. Plenty ofmagazines and Internet sites publish suspect UFOinformation. An example of a misleading UFO-related photograph can be found in the February1996 edition of Encounters magazine. The coverphoto, described as a ‘World Exclusive’, showed twojet fighters accompanying a black triangular craftthat is being refueled in midair. The photo seems tohave been taken towards a bright yellow sunset sothat all four craft are just black silhouettes. Thearticle inside (p.68) claims that the photo was takenfrom the ground by a man on holiday in Cornwall,and reveals that the military has been concealingtheir connection with such craft. However, anarticle in the March/April 1996 edition of UFOMagazine by Bill Rose claimed that the details inthe Encounters story were completely fictitious, andthat the arial refueling photo is actually a,“simulation photograph of an Aurora Projectaircraft” created by him to illustrate a sighting ofsuch a craft being refueled by a KC-135 tanker overthe North Sea in 1989.

Bill Rose’s UFO Magazine articles are veryinformative and well-referenced. He appears to be amine of information on modern military aircraftand it seems reasonable to believe his account ofthe photo’s origins. So here we have a simulatedB&W photo, created with good intentions toillustrate a genuine sighting report, which ends upbeing superimposed onto a color photo of a sunseton the cover of a rival UFO magazine to illustrate afictitious conspiracy theory article about the airforce. Ironically, Bill Rose’s article also suggeststhat the original triangular craft sighting helpsprove that the US or British air force have secretlydeveloped such a craft. It would be hard to invent amore confusing scenario that does so little toenhance the credibility of UFO research.

10

The UFO literature increasingly containsrevelations by people who claim to have hadsomething to do with UFOs or aliens while workingfor their governments. Examples are Bob Lazar(1991); Nick Pope (1996, 1997); Col. Philip Corso’sbook The Day After Roswell (1997); Dan Sherman’sAbove Black: Project Preserve Destiny (1997);Michael Wolf’s The Catchers of Heaven (1996); andIngo Swann’s Penetration (1998). Dr Steven Greerwho runs the Centre for the Study ofExtraterrestrial Intelligence (www.cseti.org) claimsto have numerous US government insidersprepared to testify before an official UFO inquiry, ifgiven permission to break their security oaths.Some insider leaks may be because these people areno longer worried about breaking their securityoaths because they are old and sick, while othersmay have been persuaded to take part in one lastdisinformation project.

So, how much insider information should webelieve? It is a standard security practice tocompartmentalize highly classified research,meaning that top secret information is only given tothose with a need to know. Christopher Creightonclaims that, of the dozens of people involved insmuggling Martin Bormann out of Germany, onlythree or four actually knew who he was. The restwere only told he was someone important. Thissuggests that few insiders would be able to leak thefull picture about government UFO research, evenif they wanted to.

An example of an insider not being given the fullpicture is Michael Wolf who claims to have been thehead of a friendly US team profiling the variousalien groups visiting earth, while another branch ofthe military (which he says he wasn’t supposed toknow about) was using futuristic energy-beamweapons to attempt to shoot them down. Thisduplicitous state of affairs, simultaneously friendlyand hostile, sounds so ridiculous that one istempted to believe that it might be true. However, agood disinformation planner would obviouslyattempt to create plausible scenarios.

Some leading ufologists warn us to be extremelysuspicious of insiders offering convincing UFOinformation. Such a scenario might be a deceptionset-up in which the ufologist, if sufficiently naïve,publishes the information using his or hercredibility (‘Trust me, I’m a ufologist!’), only to haveit convincingly refuted some time later. Not onlydoes this sabotage his or her credibility, and that ofufology in general, but it also helps persuade others

that might in future be leaked genuine insideinformation, not to believe it, or to abandon thefield all together out of sheer frustration.

Disinformation or Education?

In this vein we need to ask ourselves whether theMajestic 12 documents (which supposedly describesa top secret UFO briefing given to President-electEisenhower in 1952) or the Alien Autopsy film aregenuine? (A copy of the MJ12 documents can befound in the appendix of Timothy Good’s AboveTop Secret.) Could a sophisticated disinformationgame be being played here? Those in charge of theUFO cover-up, assuming that someone is in chargeof it, probably have contingency plans ready in case,for example, a UFO landed in the middle theOlympic Games, or a football grand final. Theywould hopefully also know that one day they mustreveal at least part of the truth about UFOs, so theymight be preparing us for such a revelation byfeeding us genuine UFO information in a semi-fictitious but entertaining form. It has even beensuggested that popular films such as Men In Blackare part of that educational program.

When one considers the Pentagon’s increasinglyunlikely Roswell explanations, parachute test-dummies indeed!, we could be excused forsuspecting that they are implying that the Roswellstory does have some validity, but that it is still tooearly for them to admit it out loud. Let us be awaretherefore that any future US president’s ‘full andfrank admission’ about UFOs has every probabilityof being only a self-serving part of the wholepicture.

Following on from the ‘Are we being educated?’question, what are we to make of the US spaceagency NASA and a majority of its astronauts actingas if UFOs do not exist? How could NASA not knowabout UFOs? Is their behavior just a publicdeception? Although a civilian agency, NASA is stillsubject to national security restrictions, regardlessof how much its employees might dislike it.

In his book Unconventional Flying Objects: AScientific Analysis (1995), NASA rocket scientistPaul Hill points out that, while he worked there,NASA’s policy was that, regardless of the evidence,UFOs do not exist. He was not happy with thissituation, but could do nothing about it. Unlike themilitary, scientists tend to see scientific discoveriesas transcending national boundaries. So we couldhave some sympathy for those NASA scientists who

11

might dearly wish to make what they know aboutUFOs public, but are perhaps reluctantly obligedeither to keep silent or make misleading statementsabout them. However, even if not actively engagedin spreading disinformation, such silence doescontribute to misleading the public.

That brings us to the various Search forExtraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) projects, whichare now funded largely by private enterprise. Howis it possible for millions of dollars and hours ofvaluable radio telescope time, which includesAustralia’s Parkes radio telescope, to be spentlistening for alien radio messages while some ofthose very aliens appear to be flying over our heads.An article in Flying Saucer Review by Jorge Martinreports that numerous UFOs, including some verylarge ones, have been seen near the radioastronomy observatory at Arecibo in Puerto Rico,which is involved in SETI.

There are not many researchers employed by SETI(computers do most of the listening) so is itpossible that they too have been misinformed aboutUFOs? In an end-of-the-millennium article inScientific American (Dec, 1999) entitled “Is ThereLife Elsewhere in the Universe?” SETI scientists JillTarter and Christopher Chyba write that, “Despitetabloid reports of aliens and artifacts everywhere,scientific exploration so far has revealed no goodevidence for any such things”. It is hard to knowwhether such comments are the product ofignorance or deception. It is clearly untrue thatUFO information comes only from tabloids, andTarter and Chyba neglect to mention which‘scientific exploration’ it was that ‘revealed no goodevidence’ for UFOs. Had they been more honest,they might have admitted that there was plenty ofgood scientific evidence for the existence of UFOs,but that they were either unwilling or not permittedto mention it.

Could SETI have a covert purpose apart fromlistening for aliens? As Terence McKenna writes,“To search expectantly for a radio signal from anextraterrestrial source is probably as culture-bounda presumption as to search the galaxy for a goodItalian restaurant.” Even if we did pick up an alienmessage from a planet that was, let’s say, twenty-five light-years away, what are we then going to do?It would be a very tedious conversation if weanswered it, and then had to wait another fiftyyears (twenty-five years there and twenty-five back)for their reply.

While keeping a few computer engineers, softwaredesigners and astronomers in gainful employment,perhaps SETI actually serves the more importantpurpose of introducing the public to the idea thatthere are almost certainly aliens out theresomewhere. Rather than listening for aliens, SETI’smain function may be to send a non-threateningmessage about aliens to the public here on Earth, asa prelude to informing them that those aliens arealready here. Most SETI scientists might beunaware of this covert motive, which would makethe whole project a masterpiece of deception.

Many ufologists had hoped that (FOI Freedom ofInformation) legislation would provide access tonumerous revealing UFO related documents.However this has not generally proved to be thecase. For a start, all FOI legislation has exemptionclauses preventing the release of documents thatmight jeopardize national security, and thebureaucrats are not silly enough to give the gameaway by saying “Sorry we cannot release thosedocuments on the grounds of national security”.Instead they adopt more frustrating tactics. Theymay take ages to answer your letter, or deny havingthe documents, or ask exorbitant fees for copyingthem (Fawcett & Greenwood, 1984). Some of thedocuments that have been released suggest that theUS and British governments do take UFOsseriously. Nevertheless FOI documents provide anideal deception opportunity, and so we should becautious in interpreting them. An Internet site thatcontains a large number of UFO-related USgovernment documents is The Black Vault(www.blackvault.com).

It has been claimed that when the US governmentstarted to research UFOs in the late forties they setin place a security system the likes of which hadnever been seen before. That system has no doubtbeen redesigned numerous times since then, butwould still appear to be working effectively. Col.Corso (1997) claims that some UFO debris washanded over to trusted defence contractors toreverse-engineer. Even if this is not true, it is stillpossible that a significant proportion of UFOresearch has been conducted by private enterprisewhere the paperwork is protected by commercialsecrecy and beyond the reach of FOI legislation. InIngo Swann’s book Penetration (1998) he claims tohave worked briefly for a US organization whichwas so secretive that it left no paper-trail at all. Itwould obviously be impossible to obtain documentsfrom an organization that does not have any.

12

Religion

Another category of deception is the sensitivesubject of self-deception. There are some peoplewith strongly held religious views who areconvinced that UFOs and abductions are the workof the devil, designed to fool humanity into strayingfrom the path of righteousness. Such people seldomconsider that it may be they who are misled, andtheir dogmatism does not compensate for their lackof concrete evidence, or disregard for the basicprinciples of science. It is bad enough that ourgovernments appear to be deceiving us about UFOswithout various religious groups adding moreconfusion to the subject.

As an example, consider the following informationthat was e-mailed from Alex Ruxton to about fiftyUFO ufologists and research groups worldwide inJanuary 2000. Ruxton claims that there are “200million reptilian devils that are now in a state ofhibernation underneath the pyramids of Egypt andMexico! They are scheduled to resurface very soon.They already have their battle plans prepared. Themajority of their troops will be sent to invade theleading industrialized nations. We do not havemuch time left…. If you think that I am kiddingthen please find the hole in my story.”

Ruxton’s evidence comes largely from the Book ofRevelation, and his website describes his theory indetail. Unfortunately, there are so many holes in hisstory that most people would probably not evenbother replying. However, to be fair, we shouldacknowledge that much of the informationsupposedly provided by aliens to abductees over thelast few decades is fairly garbled. Are aliens alsotrying to mislead us, or are our technical andcultural differences so great that we would beincapable of understanding them whatever theytold us?

Thankfully, some students of religion are morerational. Timothy Paul Prevett claims to havecompleted an honors thesis in 1998 at RegentsTheological College on the ‘Demonic EschatologicalHypothesis’ (DEH) which claims that “ETs are ademonic deception heralding the approach of thereturn of Christ”. After reviewing the availableliterature, Prevett concludes that UFOs, “should beseriously and calmly investigated by the full powerof science” because, “the DEH is unsatisfying andtheologically questionable. There are too manypossibilities, and little ground for dogmatism”.

To justify the belief that we are being deceivedabout UFOs, it helps to believe that a well-funded,well-informed, top secret UFO research projectdoes exist. However, the assumption that anubiquitous, all-powerful, unknowable, superiorauthority, has the disturbing matter of UFOs undercontrol could itself be seen as a type of reassuringreligious belief. We therefore need to be careful thatwe are not deceiving ourselves into believing that‘the authorities’ know more than we do aboutUFOs, because deep down we are frightened thatthey really know very little. Could they be usingUFO disinformation to reassure us while theydesperately try to work out what to do? After all, amilitary mentality is probably the least appropriatemind-set to research a phenomenon that appears tobe a combination of nuts-and-bolts, paranormaland spiritual ingredients. Or have we also beenmislead about that?

To illustrate that UFO disinformation doesoccasionally have its lighter side, a short article inthe MUFON UFO Journal (‘509th’, 1999) describeshow that magazine had been sent a shoulder patchsupposedly now used by the 509th Bomb Wingwhose members were formerly stationed at Roswell(and recovered the July 1947 crash debris), but whonow fly B-2 stealth planes from Whiteman AirForce Base. The circular patch displays the Latinphrase ‘Gustatus Similis Pullus’, which means‘tastes like chicken’? and shows an alien’s headabove a delta-winged craft. So, do the 509th reallyeat aliens for breakfast? The MUFON UFO Journaleditor contacted Whiteman AFB and was told that,although ‘pretty funny’, the hoax patch did notbelong to the 509th.

This article has only been able to address a smallproportion of the questionable information aboutUFOs available to the public, but it is neverthelessobvious that we have to be careful about what wechoose to believe, because there are those out therewho seem determined to mislead us for one reasonor another, while others may actually be trying toeducate us. Unfortunately, the situation is likely toget even more confusing as some new air forceplanes appear to be modeled on genuine UFOs, andrumors exist that the US government may one daystage a fake alien attack in order perhaps to justifythe subsequent militarization of space (Hayakawa).Helmut Lammer even believes that US militaryinvolvement in some abductions may be related tomind control research on their own citizens. It isclaimed that the second most popular type ofInternet sites are UFO related ones. Unfortunately,

13

this means that an ever increasing number ofpeople are available to be misinformed. Let us hopethat one day soon someone in authority, human oralien, has the decency and courage to begin tellingus what is really going on about UFOs.

References:CSETI. Available at: http://www.cseti.org/Corso, Philip J. (1997) The Day After Roswell. New York: Pocket Books.Evans, Hilary. (1984) Cergy-Pontoise. In Brookesmith, Peter (Ed.). TheAlien World (pp. 87-95). London: Macdonald & Co.Creighton, C. (1996) Op. JB. The Last Great Secret of the Second WorldWar. London: Simon & Schuster.509th Bomb Group Files. (1999, November) MUFON UFO Journal,No.379, p.11.Friedman, Stanton. (1991) The Case for UFOs as Alien Spacecraft & theGovernment Cover-up.In Lindeman, Michael (Ed.). UFOs & the Alien Presence. SantaBarbara, California: The 2020 Group.Fawcett, Lawrence & Greenwood Barry J. (1984) Clear Intent: TheGovernment Cover-up of the UFO Experience. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice Hall.Germ war reports exposed as hoax. (1998, November 15) Sunday Times[WA], p.43.Good, Timothy. (1989) Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-up. London: Grafton Books.Gotcha! Exclusive Report Captured With Camera. (1996, February)Encounters, Issue 4, 68-69.Hayakawa, N: http://www.eaglehost.com/groomwatch/Lammer, Helmut. (1999, Nov-Dec) Milabs: Military abductions of alienabductees. UFO Magazine, 14-16.Lazar, Bob. (1991) Alien Technology in Government Hands. InLindeman, Michael (Ed.), UFOs & the Alien Presence. Santa Barbara,California: The 2020 Group.Lindeman, Michael. (1999, Nov/Dec) Challenging UFO Secrecy. UFOMagazine, 66-69.Lloyd, Mark. (1997) The Art of Military Deception. London: LeoCooper.Martin, Jorge. (1999, Winter) Are UFOs watching the radio-astronomical observatory at Arecibo? Flying Saucer Review, Vol.44/4,23-25.McKenna, Terence. (1991) The Archaic Revival. San Francisco: HarperSanFranciscoOstrovsky, Victor & Hoy, Claire. (1990) By Way of Deception: TheMaking & Unmaking of a Mossad Officer. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Pope, Nick. (1996) Open Skies, Closed Minds. London: Simon &SchusterPope, Nick. (1997) The Uninvited. London: Simon & Schuster.Prevett, Timothy P. (1998) An evaluation of belief in extraterrestriallife. BA (Hons) thesis, Regents Theological College.Roach, Ted. (1997) The Physics of A Flying Saucer. Sydney: RoachIndustries.Rose, Bill. (1996, March/April) The Hidden Aurora. UFO Magazine, 4-7.Ruxton, Alex. Available at:http://msnhomepages.talkcity.com/AquariusAve/ruxtonal/Sherman, Dan. (1997) Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny – InsiderAccount of Alien Contact & Government Cover-up. Tualatin: One TeamPublishing.Swann, Ingo. (1998) Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial &Human Telepathy. Rapid City, South Dakota: Ingo Swann Books.The Black Vault: http://www.blackvault.com/Vallee, Jacques. (1991) Revelation: Alien Contact and HumanDeception. New York: Ballantine Books.Wheatley, Dennis. (1980) The Deception Planners: My Secret War.London: Hutchinson.Wolf, Michael. (1996) The Catchers of Heaven – A Trilogy. Pittsburgh:Dorrance Publications.

William Moore: UFO opportunist oragent of disinformation

Posted by: Don Schmitt July 23, 2014http://www.openminds.tv/william-moore-ufo-opportunist-

agent-disinformation/29056

It was just about a year after J.Allen Hynek hadpassed away and I was serving as the Director ofSpecial Investigations for his namesake, the J. AllenHynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in Chicago,Illinois. I also served on the board of directors atthat time. It was seven years since the book TheRoswell Incident had sparked a fair degree ofinterest on the American UFO scene and I, for one,was not impressed. In fact, I would not even acquirea copy of the book for another year. Nonetheless,many throughout the UFO community were takingthe case seriously. The very notion that the U.S.government had in their possession the actualremains of a crashed flying saucer was within thescope of possibilities for many of my colleagues.The problem for me was that I just could notconceive that an event of such magnitude could bekept a secret for all those years. As a result, I wasvery dismissive of such a fairytale. Little did I knowthat my entire life was about to be completelyengrossed by the very subject.

Come February of that time in 1987, I received aphone call from my good friend and fellow CUFOSboard member, Jerome Clark. ‘Jerry’ was cautiouslyexcited about a fast developing situation within ourfield of ufology. So fast, that he immediately askedme to strictly take his word, due to the fact he hadyet to see that for which he was about to describe tome. “Don!” exclaimed Jerry. “We may be on to asmoking gun situation here. Now, I’ve talked toMark (Dr. Mark Rodeghier, successor to Hynek)and he agrees with me that we should go ahead withthis. We’d like you to contact Paul Harvey and see ifhe’ll break the story of what I’m about to confide toyou.” The late Paul Harvey was a famous radio newscommentator with ABC network out of Chicago forover fifty years. After Hynek had passed away, I wasselected by the CUFOS board to continue briefingthis highly influential newsman on the subject ofUFOs. “Tell me what you have,” I asked Clark. Hereplied, “If this is genuine, it will break the entireUFO field wide open…”

William Leonard Moore was a most prominentufologist during the late 1970s up until the end ofthe 1980s. Somehow, for which remains a mysteryto this day, he either stumbled upon ororchestrated, one of the most controversial topicsboth in and outside of the subject of UFOs. To

14

some, he remains an enigma, both misunderstoodand willing participant. To others, his name andactions are considered “Judas-like” in theirimplications. Therefore, we will examine how a highschool teacher found himself engulfed in the middleof either an early attempt at disclosure or a multi-tiered game of disinformation possibly intended totake down the entire UFO community.

From 1966 through 1978, he taught French andRussian in Pennsylvania public schools. It isinteresting to note that given his second languagewas Russian, that has suggested he would become aprimary candidate for American espionage. In 1979,Moore moved to Minnesota where he took on a newprofession of teaching drama and English at a highschool outside of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.Before teaching, he was primarily employed as aunion arbitrator and mediator. In any event, he wasmost proficient with his language skills and wasdestined to become a writer and lecturer. Amongother interests, he had also been into the subject ofUFOs and had investigated a number of minorreports for the National Investigations Committeeon Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) of Washington, D.C.during the 1960s. It came as no surprise that withhis background, he would eventually write a bookon the topic. However, his first attempt was notquite on target.

Hardly related to the subject of UFOs, in 1979,Moore co-authored The Philadelphia Experimentwith world famous linguist Charles Berlitz. Thebook recounted the alleged 1943 U.S. Navy cloakingexperiment of the USS Eldridge at the PhiladelphiaNaval Yard. Based on pure hearsay and noeyewitness testimony, the tale of the shipdisappearing from its dock and reappearing offNorfolk, Virginia, has become the fodder of purefantasy believers.

It was while publicizing his first book that Moorerenewed an acquaintance he had with StantonFriedman while he was lecturing in Minnesota. As itturned out, they both shared a number of witnessesrelated to the Roswell incident of 1947. Mooretracked down original newspaper accounts aboutthe case and by mid-1979; the two researchers werediscussing a book on the forgotten event. However,there was one glitch. Moore’s original publisher,Grosset and Dunlap insisted that as in the previousbook, Berlitz would again write the final draft.Friedman and Moore would provide all of theirinvestigative notes and send them off the muchmore popular author in New York. Frankly,

Friedman conducted most of the interviews withpotential witnesses, and received only a mention inthe acknowledgements when the book was releasedin 1980.

From left: William Moore, Jamie Shandera, and Stanton Friedman.(Credit: Antonio Huneeus)

To limited fanfare, The Roswell Incident receivedmixed reviews from the critics, but did bring thecase once again to the forefront of UFOlore. Others,like me, had a most difficult time accepting the verypremise of the book. Just as Moore’s previouswriting, this book read in many ways like the pagesof a checkout stand tabloid. Years later, Moorehimself regaled the book as a “disgracefulhodgepodge of fact and fiction.” He would denywriting any part of it. This would become quiteevident in the update papers that he would presentover the next few years. Conversely, they weredemonstrative of Moore’s keen eye and prowess asan investigator; his reports not only presented theRoswell case as factual, but also appeared to hardenhis determination to solve the occurrence.Alternatively, so it appeared in the first five years ofhis investigation of the New Mexican mystery.

Promoting the book was rather limited incomparison to today’s outlets. Still, as Moore woulddescribe, opportunity knocked while doing justthat. “I got a phone call after appearing on a radioshow from a man who said ‘you’re the only personwe’ve heard talk about this subject, who seems toknow what he’s talking about.’ He convinced methat he was a government intelligence agent andwanted to begin disseminating some informationabout UFOs to the public.” In exchange forproviding the researcher with new information,Moore was to observe specific individuals withinthe UFO field. Whether out of curiosity oranxiousness to finish his own investigation, Moorejumped at the opportunity. The question remains,was he set up to fail and ruin his reputation, or washe part of the very disinformation scheme heclaimed to be enlisted. In any event, who would bethe first ufologist on their ‘hit list?’

15

The late Paul Benowitz was an investigator with theAerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO)of Tucson, Arizona. A most controversial figure,Bennewitz was of the belief that there was a seriousplot involving an extensive network of undergroundUFO bases connected to an alien colonization andcontrol scheme to subjugate the human race. Healso claimed to have uncovered evidence of alienscontrolling people using electronic devices, andfurthermore, claimed UFOs were frequentlyobserved near Kirtland Air Force Base inAlbuquerque, which was connected to secrettunnels into the mountains of nearby ManzanoNuclear Weapons Storage Facility and Coyote TestRange. How did Bennewitz come to suspect all this?He was convinced he was intercepting electroniccommunications originating from a secretunderground UFO facility located outside of thetown of Dulce, New Mexico.

Unable to contain himself, Bennewitz proceeded tosound the alert openly, much to the consternationof officials at APRO. Moore just happened to sit onthe group’s board of directors during this episodeand they immediately labeled the bizarre claims asdelusional and paranoid. However, unknown toBennewitz, Moore and his ‘new friends’ outside ofthe UFO community, plotted to not only discredithim, but psychologically destroy him.

On December 29 and 30 of 1981, Moore would meetfor the first time with the anonymous caller asmentioned previously in this article. The meetingstook place at a restaurant in Albuquerque with oneSgt. Richard C. Doty, then stationed at KirtlandAFB. Doty would claim he was a special investigatorwith the Air Force Office of Scientific Information(AFOSI) and displayed three documents – onebeing the fraudulent ‘Aquarius Teletype.’ The stagewas being set to slowly but surely, provide the UFOcommunity with either the document proof it hadsought since 1947, or the most elaborate hoax everperpetrated on the subject.

Picture of Richard Doty from the documentary Mirage Men. (Credit:www.miragemen.com)

The first thing that the two agreed to was to finishthe discrediting of Paul Bennewitz. It would appearthat this ‘whistleblower’ was becoming moredangerous to himself and hardly needed to bepushed over the edge. Still, that is precisely whatMoore and Doty did. Moore started to feed himpure misinformation on the subject with the fullintent he would repeat such nonsense publicly. Hewould. Next, they started playing mind games withtheir victim. For example, Moore personallydescribed to me how they would go to Bennewitz’shome on occasions and slowly move the furniturearound. When ones concept of their immediateenvironment begins to change, we start to losetouch with reality. Sadly, it all had a most negativeimpact on both the physical and physiologicalhealth of Bennewitz. During that time, he wascommitted three times to a mental health facilityand treated for severe delusional paranoia. Thequestion still remains, was Paul Bennewitzbecoming dangerous for someone else? We willaddress that question later.

In June of 1982, Moore teamed up with televisionproducer Jaime Shandera after moving to Burbank,California. Along with Friedman, they had workedtogether in 1980 on a UFO documentary. Together,they would have clandestine meetings with agrowing number of shadow characters who wouldbecome known as the “Aviary.” A majority of thesecontacts were actually figures within the UFOcommunity. Two others were Doty and anotherenlisted man at Kirtland Robert Collins, who weredubbed ‘Falcon’ and ‘Condor’ presumably byShandera. Whether to add to the intrigue or just tomaintain a level of anonymity, others were named‘Sparrow,’ ‘Blue Jay,’ and ‘Hawk.’ Throughout the1980s, more birds would join the fold totalingtwelve, each one promoting a special insight intoUFO intelligence and a staged attempt at slowlyreleasing the truth to the public. On the other hand,so Moore and Shandera were telling us. The grandscheme was about to commence.

Shandera, who was virtually unknown in UFOcircles, received a 35 mm black and white roll offilm in plain brown paper wrapped envelope onDecember 11, 1984. There was no return address,except that it was postmarked in Albuquerque. Asthough the delivery was anticipated, heimmediately called Moore and they had the filmprocessed. The developed film contained twodocuments, the more important being the seven-page Eisenhower Briefing Document, which hassince been referred to the “MJ-12” documents.

16

Moore and Shandera would next make a trip to theNational Archives in Washington, D.C. and on a tipin the form of a postcard, would go to a specificallynumbered box of documents and claim to discovera carbon copy of a memo from Robert Cutler(Special Assistant to President Eisenhower) whichmentioned the existence of MJ-12. Allegedly, theywould spend the next two years meeting with othermembers of the aviary while doing all they could tosubstantiate the documents.

The Twining Memo

This is what Jerry Clark was calling me about inFebruary 1987. Moreover, with an assurance thateverything “looked good,” I contacted Paul Harveyto break the story. Thankfully, Mr. Harvey wasmuch more reserved and needed more than copiesof documents on film where no pedigree could beestablished. Still, he was willing to broadcast arequest that anyone who could verify thedocuments should contact him and maintainconfidentiality. The offer was made to his nationalaudience of tens of millions of listeners. Now, all wecould do was try to protect ourselves at CUFOS andinvestigate the situation ourselves. I was assignedto represent the organization and extend a helpinghand of cooperation to Moore, Shandera, andFriedman with the hope of proving the documentsas genuine or fakes. However, Shandera was theunknown in this entire affair. He would be mycontact. Over the next couple of weeks, we spokeover the phone for no less than ten hours. Inaddition, after each conversation, I would report tomy scientific director, Dr. Mark Rodeghier. The oneelement that Shandera emphasized repeatedly wasthat they were promised a “truck-load” ofadditional documents. UFO believers were about tohave all of their dreams come true. Shandera wouldend each conversation with a remark madespecifically by either Falcon or Condor as though

they were calling all the shots. I believe he alsowanted CUFOS to think this was a rapidlydeveloping story and there was little time forsubstantiation.

In the same token of urgency, it was immediatelyrequested that I arrange for either Moore orShandera to meet with Paul Harvey in Chicago.That was my one mistake and it would cost me anyfurther association with such a prominent figure inthe media. Harvey had agreed to meet withShandera, mainly for the fact that nowhistleblowers had stepped forward to endorse theMJ-12 papers. He felt a meeting with the recipientmight advance the process before presenting hisfindings in a closing newscast. To say that Shanderawas a disappointment would be an understatement.He traveled to Chicago and met with the legendaryreporter in a leather motorcycle jacket, t-shirt, bluejeans, and cowboy boots. Nevertheless, what trulyupset Harvey, was Shandera’s claim that accordingto his “inside sources,” organized religion,specifically Christianity, was concocted by thealiens. Harvey, a deeply religious man, waspersonally offended and was close to callingsecurity to have this “charlatan” removed from hisoffice. I had never met Shandera, took the word ofmy associates, and it cost me my association withPaul Harvey.

For the very fact neither Moore, Shandera,Friedman, nor anyone else for that matter were ableto provide any substantiation, for the documents,Paul Harvey’s “rest of the story” on MJ-12 andUFOs in general was less than tepid. We all had losta major ally within the American press – and Icould only blame myself. Now it was my turn. I washeading to California to meet the two people whowere still claiming the proof was right around thecorner.

Over the course of the next two years, I would meetin Los Angeles at the home of Shandera. I wouldmeet privately with Moore and Shandera duringother visits. At this stage they were both aware wewere investigating more than their personal claims– we were now investigating them. The questionsgrew beyond the authenticity of the MJ-12documents and the supporting papers. We nowfocused on who could have created, “forged” suchdocuments and for whose benefit. Through years offollow-up investigation, we have arrived at specificconclusions.

17

From the very first time I talked with JamieShandera in 1987 until the last time I saw him inJuly 1997, he gave me the same assurance eachtime. “We expect to have many more supportivedocuments in the near future,” became a stuckrecord from Moore’s partner. On other occasions,Shandera would go so far as to suggest that a“truckload” of documents was about to be turnedover to them. All, with the plan to prove that theU.S. Government has physical proof of theexistence of UFOs since 1947. As of 2013, twenty-six years after the promises that disclosure wasimminent – still nothing – including the completedisappearance of Moore and Shandera from theUFO field. Consider the following:

During 1982, Moore and Doty attempted to getUFO journalist Robert Pratt to assist them topublish a book focused on the Aquarius and MJ-12documents. Doty went under the pseudonym of‘Ronald L. Davis.’ This was after Moore related toDoty a story of a famous UFO hoax. Doty and hiscolleagues used this story to provide details tocreate the Aquarius Executive Briefing. This was thedocument, which Doty attempted to pass of asgenuine to UFO researcher Linda Howe in April1983. Howe was negotiating with the HBOtelevision network, about a UFO documentary.According to Friedman, “…the simple fact of thematter is that Moore, Shandera, and I had alreadypicked up on all the names of the [MJ-12] list priorto the receipt of the [MJ-12] film.” Moore, himselfwould admit, “Some months later, in early 1983, Ibecame aware that Rick [Doty] was involved with ateam of several others [in AFOSI], including onefellow from Denver that I knew of and at least onewho was working out of D.C., in playing anelaborate disinformation game against a prominentUFO researcher [Howe], who at the time, had closeconnections with a major film company [HBO]interested in doing a UFO documentary.”

On October 14, 1988, a two-hour TV special calledUFO Cover-Up Live! was broadcast simultaneouslyto both the United States and oddly enough, theUSSR. This connection will make more sense at theclose of this article. Hosted by actor Mike Farrell ofthe MASH TV series, the program originated fromWashington, D.C. This would become the highlypromoted Moore and Shandera introduction of twoof the mysterious Aviary, “Falcon” and “Condor.”The two inside shadow figures were presented asU.S. Intelligence agents but were electronicallydisguised so they were only seen in silhouette andtheir voices were altered. Among some of the

unbelievable claims the two “agents” made werethat America was hosting alien visitors who likedstrawberry ice cream and ancient Tibetan music. Inreality, the two inside sources were none other thanDoty and Robert Collins continuing theirdisinformation campaign. It attracted a hugeaudience but unfortunately, legitimate witnesses tolegitimate UFO cases were left waiting, uncalled intheir motel rooms, while Moore and Shanderaexploited their own brand of disinformation. Anopportunity that has left a bad taste in the mouth ofufology for all these years.

Friedman would continue to champion the MJ-12documents even though most within the AmericanUFO community dismissed them as just elaboratehoaxes. All through the first half of 1989, while hisresearch partner Friedman performed duediligence, Moore and Shandera ducked all the slingsand arrows by maintaining a low profile. Somethingwas about to break and many expected delivery ofall that was promised over the past two years.However, even Friedman appeared to be in thedark…or he too realized it was all about to fallapart.

On July 1 and 2, 1989 Las Vegas, Nevada hosted theannual Mutual UFO Network (MUFON)symposium. The keynote speaker for Saturdayevening had yet to arrive at the Sands Casino Hotelfor the conference. It had been previously arrangedthat he would stay elsewhere. His presentation wasslated for an hour and a half…it would go on for twohours. There were no questions and answers tofollow…the speaker would exit immediatelythrough a rear door to avoid any confrontation.There were outcries of derision and threateningremarks throughout the lecture, which causedMUFON Nevada State Director John Lear, to callrepeatedly for order. William L. Moore was givinghis “swan song” to his colleagues within the field ofufology.

Clearly, to insure the accuracy of every word heuttered Moore read from a prepared speech. “…when I just ran into the disinformation operation…being run on Bennewitz…it seemed to me…I was ina rather unique position. There I was with my foot…in the door of a secret counterintelligence game thatgave every appearance of being somehow directlyconnected to a high-level government UFO project,and judging by the positions of the people I knew tobe directly involved with it, it definitely hadsomething to do with national security. There wasno way I was going to allow the opportunity to pass

18

me by without learning at least something aboutwhat was going on. I would play the disinformationgame, get my hands dirty just often enough to leadthose directing the process into believing that I wasdoing exactly what they wanted me to do, and allthe while continuing to burrow my way into thematrix so as to learn as much as possible about whowas directing it and why.”

Moore would confess to the assembled crowd thatthey had been “…had by elements of United Statescounterintelligence.” The audience’s reaction wasthat they had been “had” by Moore. Friedman actedas though he was flabbergasted and just as shockedas was everyone else in the banquet room. He hadonly talked over the phone with Moore just beforethe introduction to his speech. Moore had agreed tomeet with both of us at another location followingwhat has become the most controversialpresentation ever given to a UFO assembly. It wassad in many ways to watch someone publiclydestroy himself. Sadder, still, that Moore laterdeclined our planned meeting. If not a governmentagent as some had suspected, he was used to spyand discredit his colleagues, and more importantly,spread disinformation about UFOs to the Americanmedia. He had no new documents to prove orsubstantiate all the empty promises he had made tonot only Paul Harvey and me, but also to all of hisfriends and colleagues. Moore had sold his soul tothe devil, a devil that he, Doty, and Shandera hadcreated for exploitation, profit, and their ownbemusement at pulling off such an elaborate hoaxon the entire UFO community.

Today, Moore lives in Pennsylvania and stilloccasionally writes, but not about UFOs. He writesan infrequent editorial for a local newspaper andhas been researching the “Book of Mormon.”

He now claims that he believes that “Falcon” wasthe late high-ranking CIA official Henry Rositzke.Rositzke worked 25 years for the agency and was adirector of operations. After retiring, he authoredThe CIA’s Secret Operations: Espionage,Counterespionage, and Covert Actions, along withThe KGB: The Eyes of Russia. Rositzke was a SovietIntelligence specialist and personally consideredthe KGB the world’s best intelligence operation.Moore would assert that upon the agent’sretirement, he also claimed to represent a group ofgovernment insiders who wanted UFO disclosure.Moore would never meet with Rositzke who passedaway in 2002, but long inferred that he had spokenwith the former CIA official who also spoke fluent

Russian as did Moore. Originally from Brooklyn,New York, Rositzke spoke with a heavy Brooklynaccent throughout his life so it now would appearodd that according to Moore, Doty, who has anAmerican southern accent, took on the role of“Falcon” to protect the true identity of the real one.To date, there exists no evidence that beyondMoore, Shandera, Doty, and Collins, there wasanyone else even remotely associated such asRositzke.

Even the very “core” elements of their UFO storywas nothing beyond what others had alreadypromoted; That extraterrestrials have been visitingthe earth, there was a crash recovery in New Mexicowith one survivor, and that the government washaving a lot of trouble back-engineering theadvanced technology – nothing earth-shaking here.

Another possibility for motive comes to mind whenone ties in Moore’s knowledge of the Russianlanguage and his claims of noted CIA agentRositzke. When one discovers that Paul Bennewitzhad befriended a Soviet scientist and started tosecretly correspond with him, this would have soonmade him a target for KGB counter intelligence.Did Moore become aware of this and fanciedhimself to become a “spy for a day.” Were therevisions of taking credit for the apprehension of aSoviet spy? Keep in mind that Moore studiedRussia about the same time he took interest in thesubject of UFOs.

William Moore had once confided to close friendJerry Clark, that he fully expected “Roswell to makehim a million dollars.” One thing remainsabundantly clear, there is no evidence that Mooreever was paid for his alleged services as anyintelligence agent would have been. In spite ofdreams of fame and financial gain, William L.Moore now leads a life of a recluse and continues towork modest jobs such as a public school custodian.Handsomely rewarded for services rendered hecertainly was not. Or was it because he failed in hisparticipation in some form of conspiracy to fool thepublic with phony UFO documents? If so, thepowers that be underestimated us…as most did notfall for this ruse. The late Paul Harvey was correct.We continue our own research wiser for theexperience and forever vigilant of the next “strangerbearing gifts.” For that life lesson, unlike most ofmy colleagues, I will thank Bill Moore – which ismore than his “Aviary” ever did. For more on thistopic read: Majestic 12: A UFO Disinformation Scandal

19

(Video), Open letter to the U.S. Air Force regardingallegations of UFO disinformation

-------------

For up to date information on MUFON Minnesotameetings and agendas, including special speakers,visit: http://www.mnmufon.org/agenda.htm orhttp://www.mnmufon.org/event.htm

MUFON Minnesota

New State Director: Tom Maher Assist. State Dir.: Craig Lang (763) 560-1532

Field Invest. Coord.: Bill McNeff (952) 890-1390Journal Editor: Joel Henry

(952) 431-2426 E-Mail: mmj@mnmufon.org

MN MUFON WEB PAGE

http://www.mnmufon.org - Joel Henry, Webmaster

MUFONET: 3.9777 Mhz Mon. at 7:00pm CST, Bob Shultz, Net Control

National MUFON HotlineTo report UFO news, sightings, etc. call (888) 817-2220

The Minnesota MUFON Journal (MMJ) is a FREEpublication available by internet only as a .PDF

document. If you send an e-mail request to:mmj@mnmufon.org and I will add you to my e-mail

notification list. Or you can just go to:www.mnmufon.org/mmjpdf.htm where you can

check for new issues from time to time.

If you know someone who would like the MMJ, butdoes not have e-mail or internet access, you may

print out a copy of the MMJ and give to them as longas you do not charge for it. If you have news oreditorial contributions you wish to submit for

inclusion please direct your articles or inquiries tothe Editor.

NOTE: Copyrights for the articles in this issueare property of the originator(s) and/or theirassignee(s). Articles are reprinted here with

permission or are believed to be in the publicdomain. Permission to use or reprint must beobtained from the original articles author(s).

20

Minnesota MUFON Journal Joel Henry, Editor

21