The Truth Behind UFO Sightings and the U.S. Air Force

[psynapz]

No, there are no flying saucers from outer space

No, there are no flying saucers from outer space being covered up by NATO miltary governments.

Not so much lately, no. You're right about that one.

[semper occultus]

Revealed: How the government probed Britain's greatest UFO mystery

Chris Hastings and Jasper Copping
Published: 12:01AM GMT 22 Mar 2009

www.telegraph.co.uk

Declassified government files have revealed how Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials launched a top-level probe into a diamond shaped aircraft seen hovering above a Scottish village.


The UFO seen by two men, one of whom captured it on camera, as it hovered in daylight near the A9, at Calvine, north of Pitlochry, on August 4, 1990.

Officials were so alarmed by the object, which was captured on camera, that they broke with established procedures and referred the sighting to ministers.

They also overrode rules prohibiting investigations into UFO sightings not considered an immediate threat to national security, and spent more than a year trying to crack the still unexplained mystery.

.....the Ministry of Defence first became aware of the existence of the craft when the Daily Record newspaper presented it with six colour photographs of the object.

The witnesses said it hovered for about 10 minutes – during which time military aircraft were also seen making a series of low-level passes – before moving upwards, out of sight, at great speed.

The files show that officials established from the photographs that the military craft were Harrier jets even though, intriguingly, none were operational in the area at the time.

An MoD minute prepared for the then Armed Forces Minister, Sir Archie Hamilton, and dated September 14, 1990 states: "Under Secretary of State (Armed Forces) may wish to be aware that the Scottish Daily Record may run a story regarding an alleged sighting of a UFO near Pitlochrie [sic] in early August. Such stories are not normally drawn to the attention of Ministers and the MoD press office invariably responds to questions along well-established lines emphasising our limited interest in the UFO phenomenon and explaining that we therefore do not have the resources to undertake any in-depth investigations into particular sightings.

"They [the photographs] show a large stationary, diamond-shaped object past which, it appears, a small jet aircraft is flying. The negatives have been considered by the relevant staff who have established that the jet aircraft is a Harrier (and also identified a barely visible second aircraft, again probably a Harrier) but have reached no definite conclusion regarding the large object."

... the Daily Record did not run the pictures.

....files show that a year after the original photographs were taken, the MoD tasked experts to produce line drawings of the UFO which would give officials an idea of scale.

Even the creation of the drawings was shrouded in strict secrecy. One undated document suggests "very special handling" because of "sensitivity of the material". It also orders "minimum handling by listed personnel".


From USAF Colonel Charles Halt's testimony re the Rendlesham Forest sighting

www.dailymail.co.uk

Two patrolman were sent out to approach the craft which they described as 'triangular, dark metallic in appearance', Mr Halt said. It quickly and silently 'vanished at high speed'.

A few weeks later Mr Halt was told by his boss that the lights were back and so he went back out into the forest with a couple of policeman, a camera and a cassette recorder.
At the site he saw 'indentations of around six to eight feet wide' and increased levels of radiation as well as broken branches on the trees.
Mr Halt said: 'Milling around, one of the individuals saw a bright glowing object like an eye. It would appear to be winking and was shedding molten metal and silently moving through the trees and at one point it actually approached us.'

hmmm...

[elfismiles]

Download
http://www.theparacast.com/podcasts/paracast_100926.mp3

NOW PLAYING! September 26, 2010 — Co-host Nicholas Redfern with Mark Pilkington
Co-host Nicholas Redfern takes us on a fascinating journey of UFO information and disinformation with Mark Pilkington, author of “Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs.”

[Wombaticus Rex]

I think the Hessdalen Lights http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessdalen_light are important to bring up because, to me, it's one of the most non-WOO, un-polluted and consistently anomalous examples we have of the "actual" UFO/UAP phenomenon. I also think that's exactly why it's not better known here in the US.

Granted, it's a lot less titillating than Reptilians and Aryans fighting an intergalactic sex magick war, but hot damn if that's not a good thing.

I really think anyone who wants do dismiss UFOs wholesale should have a reckoning with the Hessdalen material. Especially Hugh, since he's big on science and would appreciate the depth of data involved there.

[elfismiles]

Yes yes! I'll drink to THAT!



That's why I so respect the work of Paul Devereux and the Hessdalen crowd and why I hosted organize the Texas Ghost Lights Conference a few years ago.

EDIT / ADDITION: And that is why I like Pilkington, because I don't think he's totally given up on the "True UFO Phenomenon" being more than PsyOps Hocus Pocus.

I think the Hessdalen Lights http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessdalen_light are important to bring up because, to me, it's one of the most non-WOO, un-polluted and consistently anomalous examples we have of the "actual" UFO/UAP phenomenon. I also think that's exactly why it's not better known here in the US.

Granted, it's a lot less titillating than Reptilians and Aryans fighting an intergalactic sex magick war, but hot damn if that's not a good thing.

I really think anyone who wants do dismiss UFOs wholesale should have a reckoning with the Hessdalen material. Especially Hugh, since he's big on science and would appreciate the depth of data involved there.

[Cosmic Cowbell]

Mr Halt said: 'Milling around, one of the individuals saw a bright glowing object like an eye. It would appear to be winking and was shedding molten metal and silently moving through the trees and at one point it actually approached us.'

hmmm...

Go figure...

[elpuma]

Former Air Force captain to expose UFO threat

UFO believers are in for a treat next week when members of the military meet to discuss their unexplained encounters.

The group will meet at the National Press Club in Washington to report on the strange things they've seen and demand to know why they have been told to keep quiet.

The incidents that will be discussed will all relate to what the men say is a singular focus by UFOs on weapons storage facilities.

One of them, ICBM launch officer Captain Robert Salas, was on duty during a "missile disruption" incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and was ordered to never discuss it.

Another participant, retired Colonel Charles Halt, observed a disc-shaped object directing beams of light into the RAF Bentwaters airbase in England and heard on the radio that they landed in the nuclear weapons storage area.


UFOs sighted over Yunnan province, China in 1981. Picture: Supplied

Both men claim they will provide stunning details about these events, and reveal how the US military responded.

Captain Salas said: "The US Air Force is lying about the national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases and we can prove it."

In one case, the men say several nuclear missiles malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object hovered nearby.

Attendees at the conference will be given declassified military documents that date back as far as 1948.

The group of six former US Air Force officers and one former enlisted man say they are holding the press conference because they believe it is a "public awareness issue".

Colonel Halt said he believed the security services of both the US and the UK had "attempted — both then and now — to subvert the significance of what occurred at RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation".

Captain Salas has previously spoken about his experience at Malmstrom Air Force base. In 2008 he recounted the story to US TV host Larry King.

"The UFO was reported by my top-side guard. A bright red oval object hovering outside the front gate," he said.

"He was very agitated, frightened, when he told me this over the phone.

"The reason I believe that what he told me is true is because they had no access to our missile system. They had no way to control it. And while this object was up there, my missiles shut down."

http://www.news.com.au/technology/former-air-force-caption-to-expose-ufo-threat/story-e6frfro0-1225928480574

[elpuma]

Aliens have deactivated British and US nuclear missiles, say US military pilots.
Aliens have landed, infiltrated British nuclear missile sites and deactivated the weapons, according to US military pilots.


A Minuteman missile at Malmstrom Air Force Base in the 1960s Photo: AP/USAF

Six retired officers and one former non-commissioned officer claim to have gathered witness testimonies from more than 120 military personnel revealing the infiltration of nuclear sites by aliens as recently as 2003.

In some cases, nuclear missiles supposedly malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object hovered nearby.

Captain Robert Salas, a former Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Launch officer, said he was on duty during one missile disruption incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in 1967.

“An object came over and hovered directly over the site,” he said.

“The missiles shut down – 10 Minuteman missiles. And the same thing happened at another site a week later. There’s a strong interest in our missiles by these objects, wherever they come from.

“I personally think they’re not from planet Earth.”

He said he was ordered to never discuss it: “The US Air Force is lying about the national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases and we can prove it.”

Colonel Charles Halt said he watched Unidentified Flying Objects directing beams of light into RAF Bentwaters airbase near Ipswich and heard on the radio that they landed in the nuclear weapons storage area.

Col Halt said: “I believe that the security services of both the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted – both then and now – to subvert the significance of what occurred at RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practised methods of disinformation.”

The group of officers said they would distribute declassified government documents on Monday that would prove there had been alien interference at nuclear weapons sites stretching back to 1948.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8028499/Aliens-are-sabotaging-British-and-US-nuclear-missiles-US-military-pilots-claim.html

[elfismiles]

Chris O'Brien has setup a network Of UFO webcams in San Luis Valley, Colorado.

http://ourstrangeplanet.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=39

He apparently talks about it in a recent episode of www.TheParaCast.com

To get to the free archives:

http://www.gcnlive.com/listen.php

Then scroll down to Paracast, click Archives, select October,
and select October 3, hour #1. This is within the first ~20
minutes.

The guest is Chris O'Brien from the San Luis Valley who is
describing this program, which seems to be more ambitious than
the Hessdalen project in Norway as it will involve multiple
webcams in different locations.

The cams are mounted on cell phone towers by permission of the
tower owners - as opposed to the cell phone companies. Chris
reports very positive experiences in getting permission and
assistance for the cams.

http://www.ufoupdateslist.com/2010/oct/m04-008.shtml

I think the Hessdalen Lights http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessdalen_light are important to bring up because, to me, it's one of the most non-WOO, un-polluted and consistently anomalous examples we have of the "actual" UFO/UAP phenomenon. I also think that's exactly why it's not better known here in the US.

Granted, it's a lot less titillating than Reptilians and Aryans fighting an intergalactic sex magick war, but hot damn if that's not a good thing.

I really think anyone who wants do dismiss UFOs wholesale should have a reckoning with the Hessdalen material. Especially Hugh, since he's big on science and would appreciate the depth of data involved there.

[elfismiles]

Mirage Men: UFO researcher Mark Pilkington on deception and psychological warfare
By David Hambling |06 October 2010 |Categories: Culture, Politics, Wired Science

Mark Pilkington's new book Mirage Men is a dizzying ride through a world of deception, manipulation and psychological warfare by intelligence agencies. Working in the field of UFO phenomena, the Mirage Men sow elaborate patterns of disinformation.

Whether you think that UFOs are probably just satellites or shooting stars, or if you think the aliens have already landed, then your beliefs were probably planted by them. As Pilkington discovered, they can be subtle enough to deceive whole populations, or intense enough to literally drive their targets insane.

Looking for a guide through this maze of mirrors I met the author, UFO researcher, and sometime maker of crop circles in a pub off Tottenham Court Road. But could I trust a man who has himself been "outed" as an agent of MI5?

Wired: You travel across the UFO heartland of the Southwest US in the book; was there ever a UFO deception operation in Britain?

Mark Pilkington: To some extent yes. For example, in the book I tell the story of Milton Torres, an American pilot based at RAF Manston in Kent. In 1957 he was ordered to intercept what appeared to be a huge UFO on his radar; he armed his missiles -- remember this was over the Kent countryside! -- and approached, only to find that there was nothing there. The next day an American claiming to be from the National Security Agency instructed him to keep mum, which he did, for thirty years. The incident sounds like a demonstration of the CIA and NSA's extremely secret Palladium system for spoofing radar signals, which can account for some UFOs picked up on radar.

But my hunch is that if the Americans were doing it, then at some point we would have been doing it too. I did speak to former employee of the RAF Provost and Security Services -- our equivalent to the USAF's AFOSI. He told me that part of his work had involved generating UFO accounts, but didn't want to go on the record for the book. I am hoping to follow that lead a little further, however.

W: During your investigation you came across intelligence officers in Air Force uniform, who were actually from another agency, plain-clothes operatives who seem to be military… Who's behind it all?

MP: Yes, it was apparently not uncommon for CIA or NSA Contact Officers to dress as armed services personnel when contacting UFO witnesses, and I expect that it worked the other way around. There's a bizarre internal Air Force memo from March 1967 that describes someone in an Air Force uniform assembling UFO witnesses in a school room and telling them that they didn't see anything, while someone claiming to be from NORAD pinched UFO photos from Rex Heflin in California in 1965.

I also wouldn't be surprised to find that civilian UFO investigators had pretended to be from the military or intelligence agencies in the past. In the 1960s prankster UFO researchers would freak out other ufologists by dressing and behaving like the mysterious Men in Black -- a concept [that became] a key part of UFO lore.

So the short answer is that everyone -- from UFO investigators to alphabet soupers -- has been behind the UFO story at some point or another. That's why it's so difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle the facts from the folklore and deception.

W: In the book you get to know Rick Doty, a former Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent who admits to having passed on fake documents to UFO researchers. How influential were these -- and did they really drive someone mad?

MP: There were two sets of inter-related documents that really inflamed the UFO myth during the 1980s. One was the "Aquarius" memo that hinted at a US government UFO research programme called Aquarius, and mentioned a group called "MJ-Twelve". This was given to Paul Bennewitz, a civilian engineer who worked alongside Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuqerque New Mexico. Bennewitz believed that he was eavesdropping on the communications of ETs flying in and out of the base, these were apparently emissions from an NSA project which he was "decoding" to find alien messages in. After being encouraged in his delusions for some years by Doty and others working out of Kirtland, Bennewitz developed serious paranoid psychosis and had to be institutionalised for a month. During this entire time Bennewitz was quite influential in the UFO field, and many of the ideas he promoted, and was encouraged to believe by AFOSI -- that there's an ET base next to Dulce, New Mexico, that the ETs have traded their technology with the US government -- are still central to the UFO lore. My sense is that Bennewitz was deliberately targetted to distribute nonsense into the UFO community.

W: Doty argues that all the deception is a way of preparing people for the truth when it is revealed, and he seems to believe wholeheartedly in aliens. In fact he claims to have seen an alien being interviewed at an Air Force base. Did he really see something?

MP: Well that's the $50 billion question! Is Doty telling porkies? Was he really shown something, or does he really believe that he's been shown something? Any of these eventualities are possible and that's what makes Doty, and his story, so fascinating. Perhaps in testing or training its intelligence officers the Air Force at one point presented them with bizarre material, maybe to assess their responses to unknown factors, or even to test their ability to keep secrets. If they feed them UFO material, then if they do blab nobody gets hurt. All I can say for sure is that Rick isn't crazy, and he has an incredible ability to generate UFO stories, seemingly spontaneously.

W: Doty insisted that he was acting as a "private citizen" when you met him at a UFO conference. Was there anything that made you think Doty still has some clout in military circles?

MP: At the time we were talking to Doty he worked with the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and I presume that he still does. I don't know what kind of relationship he now has with the military, but he was able to take my colleague John Lundberg and I on a brief tour of Kirtland AFB, which was fascinating. Doty showed a card to the guard at the gate, who saluted without asking Rick who his two shifty-looking passengers were. I have to say we were impressed -- there aren't many former employers who would let me in if I just showed up with two random people!

W: You seem to have uncovered a two-track approach to UFO deception. On the one hand intelligence agencies want to explain them away as meteors or satellites, but they're also faking material about alien contacts. How does that work?

MP: This does seem to be the case, and also seems to go back to the earliest days of the UFO story -- for example the April 1952 LIFE magazine article, written in conjunction with Air Force personnel, that promote the idea that flying saucers were from outer space, while at the same time their men on the ground were telling UFO witnesses that they hadn't seen anything. It appears paradoxical, but it does make some sense.

There appear to be two stages in their UFO defences. The first is generally encouraging the idea that UFOs aren't worth talking about, which is the attitude of the majority of the population and keeps them away from the subject (until they have a sighting of their own!). The second stage is for the small few who are incurably interested and actively involved in the subject; they are going to believe that Earth is being visited by extraterrestrials no matter what you tell them, so you use them to keep the UFO story alive, because a) it feeds back into discouraging other people from getting involved and b) it's a useful cover for all manner of covert operations.

W: Your book shows how releasing a few documents to the right people can influence a whole community. Now every new movie seems to have its own viral marketing campaign complete with fake videos and bogus websites -- have the Mirage Men's influencing techniques have gone mainstream?

MP: Absolutely, the techniques are more or less identical. And it's no coincidence that some of the key players in the information wars came out of advertising and the media. Sefton Delmer, who turned deception into an artform for the British in WWII, was a former Daily Express journalist, while Edward Lansdale, one of the great American Cold Warriors who coined the phrase "hearts and minds", worked in the advertising industry.

Coincidentally or not I worked for a few years as an advertising copywriter. One of my last freelance jobs was writing a PowerPoint presentation for QinetiQ, something I wasn't told I'd be doing and wasn't too happy about at the time.

W: What do you make of the recent UFO sightings over Iran? (The Iranian authorities even claim to have shot one down last year). The unidentified objects are described as glowing or having lights on them, do this rule out secret US spy drones?

MP: There was a UFO wave over Iran in 2004 when I first began researching Mirage Men -- many of them, not surprisingly, seen over their burgeoning nuclear facilities. The Iranian Air Force announced that they'd be having a UFO conference to investigate the sightings, but I never heard any more about that. It's interesting to see how in Iran, just as in the UK or the US, initial reports of lights in the sky will quite quickly transform into more dramatic stories -- the second wave of sightings in 2004 involved strange robot creatures with claw arms hovering in the skies. This kind of escalation is a natural part of the folkloric narrative process, though it's also possible that these stories were faked by witnesses or journalists to sell newspapers, or were even planted by Iran's enemies to stir up unease.

Bright lights don't necessarily rule out spy planes or drones, maybe they were there to distract attention from another covert operation. Or perhaps the purpose was to generate unease and fear amongst the population with the eventual goal of destabilising the regime. The US planned to fly "ghost planes" over Libya in 1986 for similar reasons, though the project was never carried out.

W: British hacker Gary McKinnon claims to have found details of a secret US space fleet on Pentagon computers -- do you think he's telling the truth?

MP: I actually think he probably is telling the truth, though not for the reasons he thinks. By his own account McKinnon was a rubbish hacker using off the peg software he'd found on the Internet, so it's highly unlikely that he'd have got very far into the Pentagon's networks.

I suspect that they keep UFO files and other sensational material strung around their outer defences as honey traps to lure in people like McKinnon, then while they're feasting on the alien goodness, they identify them and eventually pounce. The material that McKinnon claims to have found -- about a Space Navy and antigravity craft -- are effectively the same stories that Steven Greer, a former paramedic turned ET prophet, has been promoting for years anyway. Perhaps this is the same material that's been fed to Greer, or perhaps the Pentagon's techies just adapted the material from his web sites and got their bait for free!

There's an almost identical story from 1996, though it had a happier ending. Matthew Bevan, a 21-year-old computer hacker and UFO enthusiast from Cardiff, found documentation about anti-gravity drives while scouring Wright Patterson AFB's computer network for information about the Roswell incident. Like McKinnon he was arrested and the US sought to extradite him, but failed. Interestingly an AFOSI officer at the trial stated that Bevan wasn't trying to do any harm and was only looking for UFOs, which suggests that they don't take the subject too seriously! Bevan, who was a good hacker, is now a freelance security consultant.

W: By the end of the book, Doty is accusing you of working for British Intelligence, and UFO researcher Richard Hall says that you "are on the MI5 payroll." Is this true, and what's the pay like in the Security Services these days?

MP: I don't know if someone made the accusation to Doty, or if he was just testing me out, but the story spread like wildfire, which might serve a possible purpose of course -- to discourage other mirage men from talking to me and generate suspicions about me in the US UFO community. It's all very flattering, but I don't think I'd get very far as a real spy!

Being pegged as an agent for the forces of darkness is something of an inevitability and a badge of honour when you research these areas. It's part of the narcissism involved in conspiracy thinking -- their research is so important that "they" must be planting their agents amongst us. The irony of course is that intelligence agents probably do sometimes go to UFO conferences, to research new ideas, and to find out if anyone's accidentally seeing anything they shouldn't. But I'm not one of them!

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/201 ... mirage-men

[Luther Blissett]

Wait, the Men In Black entered popular mythology because they would appear to UFO investigators, not UFO eyewitnesses? That's new to me. The only investigator's story I can think of is Peter Rojcewicz's, from an encounter that took place an Ivy League university library.

[elfismiles]

Wait, the Men In Black entered popular mythology because they would appear to UFO investigators, not UFO eyewitnesses? That's new to me. The only investigator's story I can think of is Peter Rojcewicz's, from an encounter that took place an Ivy League university library.

It all does get a bit confusing wrt the MIB mythos. This is one point on which I think I may disagree with Pilkington, who btw we'll be interviewing soon for PsiOp-Radio. Turns out he and I probably unknowingly rubbed elbows here in Austin while he was living here with his then girlfriend, circa mid 1990s.

But yeah, on the one hand, the MIB mythos seems to have largely been "created" by folks like (UFO "researchers") Gray Barker and James Moseley. And yet, I know of a few instances of documented MIB encounters (by UFO witnesses).

I think Redfern and Pilkington both suggest that the dark-figure lore was utilized by the PTB. And I think Pilkington suggests that at least some MIB reports were caused by inter-agency shenanigans, ie - Air Force Intel folks pretending to be FBI and vice versa. In fact Pilkington suggests a lot of the early era shenanigans in the ufo field was possibly the result of inter-agency fighting.

[elpuma]

Skeptical” Group CSI Comments on the Recent UFO-Nukes Connection Press Conference at the National Press Club — The Propaganda Push-Back Has Begun..

The debunkers have begun their propaganda push-back, in response to my press conference at the National Press Club on Monday, during which six former USAF officers and one former enlisted man spoke about UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites. Skeptical Inquirer managing editor Benjamin Radford has just posted an article at http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/ ... 00930.html in which he tries his best to discredit the ex-USAF's testimony.

Skeptical Inquireris published by the group Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) which used to be the Committee for the Scientific Investigations of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). As I discovered years ago, the organization has some rather interesting and largely-unpublicized connections with the US government's nuclear weapons program--although one will have to look really hard to find any information relating to that.

In response to Radford's post, I wrote:

Benjamin Radford neglected to mention that he is the managing editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, published by the "UFO-skeptical" group CSI. Radford also failed to mention that the executive editor of the magazine, Kendrick Frazier, worked as a PR Specialist at Sandia National Laboratories--one of the US government's largest nuclear weapons labs--for more than 20 years although, with rare exceptions, he seemed shy about acknowledging that fact.

Moreover, a leading CSI member, James Oberg, once worked with classified nukes-related secrets while in the Air Force and once privately chastised another former USAF officer, Dr. Bob Jacobs, for leaking information pertaining to the nukes-related Big Sur UFO incident. As I have written elsewhere:

“Many years ago, I discovered that Kendrick Frazier was in fact employed—beginning in the early 1980s—as a Public Relations Specialist at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yes, the same Sandia Labs that has been instrumental to the success of America’s nuclear weapons program since the late 1940s, through its ‘ordinance engineering’ of components for bomb and missile warhead systems.

Interestingly, Skeptical Inquirer's publisher's statement, or ‘masthead’, which appears at the beginning of each issue, never once mentioned Frazier's employment at the highly-secretive, government-funded laboratory. Instead, the magazine merely listed, and continues to list, his profession as "science writer"—a reference to his having written several books and articles on various scientific subjects. Also curious is the fact that various online biographies on Frazier—including one written by himself—also fail to mention his two-decade tenure at Sandia Labs. An odd omission indeed.

Consequently, here is the situation: In what is arguably the most dramatic nuclear weapons-related UFO incident ever revealed [Big Sur], two former U.S. Air Force officers insist that one of our experimental nuclear warheads was actually shot down by a flying saucer. And who is responsible for publishing the first debunking article about the Big Sur incident, in which it is claimed that the UFO encounter never happened? Why, a PR guy working for the U.S. government’s nuclear weapons program!

Furthermore, the CSICOP-Nukes Connection does not end with Kendrick Frazier. James Oberg, one of Cisco’s leading UFO debunkers, once did classified work relating to nuclear weapons at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, located at Kirtland AFB, just down the road from Sandia Labs.

From 1970-72, Oberg was an Air Force officer whose assignments with the Battle Environments Branch at the weapons lab involved the development and utilization of computer codes related to the modeling of laser and nuclear weapons. Oberg also served as a “Security Officer” while at the weapons lab and was, therefore, responsible for monitoring the security procedures used to safeguard the classified documents generated by his group.

After Bob Jacobs went public with the UFO shoot-down story, Oberg wrote to him, chastising Jacobs for revealing top secret information. In his MUFON UFO Journal article, Jacobs wrote that after he broke his silence, ‘I was contacted by a variety of investigators, buffs, cranks, proponents and detractors alike. James Oberg, a frequent mouthpiece for certain NASA projects and self-styled UFO Debunker wrote to disparage my story and to ask provocatively, ‘Since you obviously feel free to discuss top secret UFO data, what would you be willing to say about other top secret aspects of the Atlas warhead which you alluded to briefly...?’ I told Mr. Oberg where to put his misplaced cynicism.’

Despite Oberg’s charge, Jacobs has correctly pointed out that because Major Mansmann had told him that the UFO encounter ‘never happened’, he had no personal knowledge of the classification level attached to the incident.

In any event, it is almost certain that Oberg would not have criticized Jacobs for exposing ‘top secret UFO data’, had he known that Jacobs would subsequently publish his remark. So, here we have one of CSICOP’s leading UFO debunkers—whose public stance is that UFOs don’t even exist—angrily asking Jacobs in a private letter whether he would also openly discuss ‘other’ top secret aspects of the missile test. Once a Security Officer always a Security Officer, I guess.

For his part, CSICOP’s chief UFO-debunker, the late Philip J. Klass, aggressively hounded Dr. Jacobs after he published the warhead shoot-down story, going so far as to write a derisive letter to Jacobs’ department chairman—Dr. R. Steven Craig, Department of Journalism and Broadcasting, University of Maine—in which Klass accusingly questioned professor Jacobs’ fitness as a representative of the academic community.

Jacobs’ understandably indignant response to Klass, titled, ‘Low Klass: A Rejoinder’, may be found online. It is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the behind-the-scenes battle that ensued after Jacobs went public with the UFO incident.

Among other subjects, the rejoinder touches on acrimonious correspondence between Jacobs and Klass. At one point, after Dr. Jacobs ignored Klass’ repeated demands that he respond to the debunker’s charges, Klass offered character references, citing Admiral Bobby R. Inman (USN Ret.)—the former Director of the National Security Agency, who also held Deputy Director positions at both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency—and Lt. General Daniel O. Graham (USA Ret.), the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Klass not only provided Jacobs with their names, but home addresses as well, and told him, ‘Both men have worked with me and gotten to know me in my efforts for Aviation Week.’

The character references provided by Klass are certainly interesting, given his stock response over the years to those who questioned his motives. Whenever he was confronted with the charge that he was not really a UFO skeptic, but a disinformation agent for the U.S. government, Klass would always recoil indignantly and ridicule the notion. So who does he choose to present as character references in his letter to Jacobs? Two of the top intelligence officers in the U.S. government.”

So, LiveScience, I just thought you might like to know about all of this. Interesting how Radford quickly publishes his attempted debunking of UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites shortly after my press conference at the National Press Club on Monday. His comments are inaccurate and misleading. For a clearer perspective on the UFO-Nukes Connection (devoid of spin by folks who worked for the US government's nukes program and their associates) please visit my website www.ufohastings.com. My article "UFO Sightings at ICBM Sites and Nuclear Weapons Storage Areas" is a good intro to the topic.

http://ufomagazine.squarespace.com/ufo-magazine/2010/10/3/reactionary-skeptibunkies-move-reactionary-bowels-regards-uf.html

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

For pete's sake.

Even Stars and Stripes Middle East edition ("free to all deployed areas") carried a front-page UFO story on the day that a US soldier was being brought up on charges of murdering civilians and taking body parts as souvenirs.

Why, yes! Around September 27th! What a frikkin' coincidence!
9/29/10 Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now features the first prosecution of the "Kill Team"-
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/29/1 ... leged_kill

When there's TOO much reality afoot, the UFO crap gets put on the table to repel consumption of the day's news cycle and offer a puffy diversion for those who Prefer Not To Know about the wretched side of militarism.

[Byrne]

When there's TOO much reality afoot, the UFO crap gets put on the table to repel consumption of the day's news cycle and offer a puffy diversion for those who Prefer Not To Know about the wretched side of militarism.

Exactly my thoughts.

I was just hunting UFOs, says Pentagon hacker
Over a two-year period, Gary McKinnon hacked into Pentagon, NASA and military systems