Showing posts with label AFOSI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AFOSI. Show all posts

Sunday, August 02, 2020

UFO Gatekeepers: You Shall Not Pass

UFO Gatekeepers: You Shall Not Pass



     The recent sensational New York Times’ headline thrilled readers across the world: No Longer in Shadows, Pentagon’s U.F.O. Unit Will Make Some Findings Public.

I am not going to discuss the details of the article or the Time’s subsequent corrections or the buzz generated in UFO circles of imminent disclosure. Instead, I want to focus, as I have for the last ten years on the human side of the UFO subject, and specifically on those who play a role in pushing the UFO narrative through the mass media. In this latest sensation -
James Carrion
By James Carrion
The UFO Chronicles
7-29-20
Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal who also broke the Times’ 2017 AATIP story, follow up on their tic-tac, paddywack, give a Navy dogfight a bone story to the now even more sensational retrieval of off-world vehicles.

 If my multi-decade experience with the UFO subject has taught me any one core truth, it boils down to the following observation. The modern-day UFO subject has been dominated for the last seven plus decades by humans deceiving humans and because the deceivers are affiliated with domestic or foreign government agencies, what truly lies at the core of the UFO phenomenon cannot be unequivocally ascertained until the role of those agencies is brought fully to light. A tall glass to fill indeed.

I am not talking about the MIB, or MJ-12, or the IPU, all mythical or made-into-myth organizations that have no basis in reality. I am referring to, at least on our side of the pond, our run-of-the-mill agencies like the CIA, the DIA, and in years pass the AFOSI. Now it is the ONI – the Office of Naval Intelligence – that is taking the central role in this hall of mirrors.

We are enticed to believe that soon, some of the ONI’s UFO findings will be shared with the public, although I am not holding my breath for clarity but just further muddying of  the UFO waters,  likely generating more questions than answers. I anticipate the “findings” will be piecemeal-ed out in a very controlled manner using the same human mouthpieces that have been serving their intended purposes from 2017 until the present day. It won’t just be Kean and Blumenthal but also Mellon, Elizondo, de Longe, and Silva, who will act in there already pre-established roles as “gatekeepers”. Those who came before them like Knapp and Moulton-Howe have long since served their purpose of pushing false narratives like the Skinwalker Ranch. New gatekeeper blood has emerged but the myths they are helping to build have at their base the dung hill of deceptions past.

Gatekeepers

You may remember the iconic movie scene from the Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring where the wizard Gandalf prevents the demon Balrog from crossing the bridge; slamming down his magical staff while uttering the words, “You shall Not Pass!” The bridge crumbles and the Balrog falls into the chasm. UFO truth seekers who shun the sensational and instead critically explore and research facts are just as doomed to cross the UFO bridge of enlightenment, stopped from further progress by the sponsored gatekeepers of the UFO narrative.

Playing an analogous role to Gandalf in UFO world are the UFO mouthpieces who release and promote their sensational UFO news stories, oftentimes fed by an inside source.  Ego-driven by their “chosen” status and preconceived beliefs, they are more than eager to regurgitate the sensational allegations, irrespective of glaring red flags. Facts and journalistic integrity often time take second place to getting the story out. The UFO narratives that make it into the mass media flow directly from deceivers through these gatekeepers and alternative narratives simply cannot compete. Conspiracy and sensationalism sell and anything mundane simply falls away into the deep black void.

Gatekeepers most likely are not cognizant they are being taken for a ride, although I would venture some do and simply don’t care. Others are just plain old naïve and truly believe they are the conduits to imminent disclosure. Some may think they can role play their way to the inner circle of UFO enlightenment when in fact they never make it over the bridge themselves. Some may even be cognizant of their roles and the masters they ultimately serve.

 Critical thinkers will see it as just the same ole nonsense of imminent disclosure they have been hearing about for years. Jack Brewer discusses the same in his recent blog article UFO Debris, Disclosure, and Congressional Investigations. If you think Senator Marco Rubio is a visionary for pushing for Congressional briefings, then take the time to read this 1988 document. Congress has had an interest in UFOs since Kenneth Arnold kicked off the modern-day UFO era in 1947. Since that time, neither the most ardent UFO believers who scream  Cosmic Watergate nor the official agencies that had UFO investigation oversight until 1969, have been able to muster sufficient concrete evidence to interest the scientific community or to grab the short attention span of politicians. Congressional inquiries have gone nowhere.

And are we supposed to believe that by the time the Air Force stopped investigating UFOs in 1969, that the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) was asleep at the UFO wheel for decades? If the ONI wants to truly brief the public, they can start by explaining what the hell they have been doing with UFO intelligence since 1947.

UFO Gatekeepers come and go, but what always eludes us is the plain and simple UFO truth. Instead it is obfuscated, muddied, built on deceptions and minutely orchestrated by those who control the narrative for selfish reasons. The same old gatekeepers show up time and time again in UFO circles, monopolizing the news cycle; propped up to media roles, their sensational voices drowning out logic and reason. Did you catch Linda Moulton Howe’s cameo on the History Channel’s The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch?

When they have outlived their usefulness, UFO Gatekeepers are sidelined, and new young guns take their place. The sooner you accept that UFO disclosure is a fallacy, the less disappointment and frustration you will endure when the ONI’s findings do not live up to your expectations. But if you insist on skipping and hopping your way across the bridge to UFO enlightenment – just remember that like all who desired the same before you and were denied - You Too Shall Not Pass.

Wednesday, August 08, 2018

UFO Misinformation: Relevant as It Ever Was

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UFO Misinformation: Relevant as It Ever Was

Paul Bennewitz
The late Paul Bennewitz
     Paul Bennewitz lived just outside Kirtland Air Force Base, where he became convinced aliens were executing a plan to take over the planet. Air Force personnel contributed to reinforcing and shaping the man's beliefs, according to Greg Bishop's 2005 nonfiction book, Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth.
Jack Brewer
By Jack Brewer
The UFO Trail
7-30-18
Bishop was prominently featured in Mirage Men, a 2013 documentary written by Mark Pilkington and directed by John Lundberg and others. The film explores at length thecircumstances of Bennewitz's ill fated association with Richard Doty, who, during the time in question, was an Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent. Bennewitz also became acquainted with UFO researcher William Moore, further sealing the confused Bennewitz's unfortunate fate.

The work of Bishop and Pilkington is essential material in gaining understandings of what's known and speculated about the Bennewitz chain of events, as well as the general intelligence community propagation of UFO-related stories. An abundance of unsubstantiated assumptions about UFOs and their extraterrestrial, underground dwelling, cattle mutilating pilots - which are now commonly yet mistakenly taken for granted as accurate - can be directly traced to events and the cast of characters surrounding Paul Bennewitz. And none of it was true.

Also deserving mention is an article by Alejandro Rojas titled, Open letter to the U.S. Air Force regarding allegations of UFO disinformation. The 2014 piece takes readers through the FOIA efforts of Rojas surrounding the Bennewitz case. The citations contain a wealth of material for potential further FOIA requests. FOIA subject material may also be mined from Project Beta and Mirage Men.


My FOIA efforts include submitting the above material quoted from Project Beta to multiple agencies. Former Special Agent Doty apparently told Bishop about investigations surrounding Bennewitz. I have yet to receive any positive responses but, as often seems to be the case with such matters, my preparation to appeal the unfilled requests presents more circumstances worthy of FOIA submissions.

Take, for example, statements below contained in a letter written by Doty and sent to Jim Moseley, published in Moseley's July 15, 2000 edition of Saucer Smear:

By Richard Doty - Saucer Smear  7-15-2000

I encourage interested parties to cite specific published statements as quoted above and submit FOIA requests for files which may have resulted from the alleged circumstances. In the above example, requests might be sent to AFOSI and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

While I find such circumstances intriguing, their relevance arguably goes much further than how interested we may be. There is actually a very important reason to better inform ourselves of past events: It teaches us better understandings of current events.

Richard Doty
Adam Gorightly has a forthcoming book exploring the cultivation of a great deal of questionable UFO stories. He takes a close look at tales surrounding Dulce, the big reveal that never happened at Holloman AFB, the birth of the infamous Serpo fiasco, and much more. I look forward to the release of the book and resulting discussions.

I contend it is important to be aware of these stories because doing so demonstrates the critical significance of prioritizing established facts over suppositions. It should be understood that statements need not be immediately discounted, nor should we necessarily distrust people with ties to the intelligence community. An important point is that there are extremely well documented instances of individuals going to great lengths to control the UFO narrative for a variety of reasons. That being the conclusively demonstrated case, we should proceed with caution - whether someone with a story worked on the federal payroll or not.

There is no substitute for transparent research practices and making evidence available for public review. We should expect those making claims to understand this as well. As history teaches, beware those who minimize transparency and talk in circles. It doesn't mean every story is not true, but it's not like we don't have valid reasons to suspend judgment until verification comes along. To criticize those who do so is unreasonable.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Unknowns Entered Earth Orbit, Hover Over Former Soviet Union | MY UFO EXPERIENCE



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By Simone Charisse Mendez
The UFO Chronicles
2-16-15

     This story of mine has been around -in- somewhat of Ufology, since about 1990, but in 2015, it's still fairly obscure.

So my name is Miss Simone Charisse Mendez, I am a female USAF veteran. I served active duty enlisted during the 1980's.

I was assigned to Nellis AFB in Nevada, to conduct cryptographic message center work, pertaining to certain satellites. One day, I came into possession of a printout carbon copy, which detailed how a cluster of unknowns entered earth orbit from outside the solar system, then 3 of them went into Moscow USSR and hovered around there, for about an hour, by their international airport area, and all this was tracked by NORAD and AWACS.

I had a reason at that time, which made me believe I could keep this carbon copy and not get found out and in trouble … but I got found out, and in trouble—tremendously so!

The AFOSI and FBI were treating me as a possible perpetrator of espionage, and from January 1982, to June, I was experiencing questionings, polygraphs, searches, and a hospitalization.

After July of 1982, my trouble completely ended; in 1983 through 1984, I was working in an un-sensitive job on that base, as if nothing weird and terrible, ever occurred.

At the beginning of all that investigation, I was told 'my' document was a fabrication. Which makes this incident so much more curious; that would be established before those months of inquisition, not near or at the end of it.

What influenced me to such risky decision, was that in the late 1970's, as a very young civilian in my hometown, I experienced several dramatic sightings, some, with a then-friend, and I made some detailed illustrations from memory, per my artistic propensity. The friend and I also experienced what could be surmised as 'MIBs'. A couple years ago or thereabouts, I submitted a sightings report to Peter Davenport's NUFORC, where it resides, for the record.

I left military service early in 1988 and went back to my home state. From there, in the early 1990's, I experienced another round of X-Files like occurrences. I had requested and received my federal files on the a fore mentioned UFO-trouble in 4 packages—it was/is quite revealing, surprisingly.

In October of 1990, a flurry of press articles appeared via miscellaneous sources, saying that my given name is a national security code word, they told some of President Bush's associates, following a session of "reverse speech." I know, that’s bizarre, and it's a bizarre 'coincidence.’

At that time -also-, a mysterious crop circle appeared in my area, and I have photos, of me and some then MUFONers in and about that formation.

In 1993, a film crew from the then-TV series 'Sightings', traveled from Los Angeles to interview me about my Air Force incident, and this visit was one whole long day, but I never heard\saw anything further, about the interview. I have (have kept) photos of that ordeal. I like to meticulously obtain and keep, hard documentation, of matters which would -otherwise- be wild yarns without such.

Monday, September 08, 2014

“’Mirage Men’ Operates on The Premise That UFOs are Hokum”

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Mirage Men

A nest of weasels


By Billy Cox
De Void
9-4-14

     If you ever want to dissuade the uninitiated from going near The Great Taboo, show them “Mirage Men,” the 2013 documentary based on Mark Pilkington’s eponymous book. Guaranteed to make an honest broker erupt in hives at the mere thought of parting the veil around the UFO mystery, “Mirage Men’s” anatomy of a government disinformation program is brilliant propaganda, and delivered with the sort of polished confidence that could easily make the “Frontline” rotation.

Directed by British crop-circle debunker John Lundberg, “Mirage Men” focuses largely on the activities of Richard Doty, the now-retired USAF Office of Special Investigations agent who screwed several UFO researchers with phony conspiracy yarns and created enough paranoia to put one of them in a psychiatric ward.

Like the book, “Mirage Men”operates on the premise that UFOs are hokum, and inflated by a counterintelligence network determined to conceal its black projects behind a smokescreen of imaginary space aliens. As Pilkington asserts in the documentary, “The UFO mythology develops of its own accord, and the mirage men will just drop a new piece of data, a new meme, some new fake documents into the mix as and when it is expedient for them to do so. And there’s no real need for a sustained UFO deception campaign because the folklore is just perfectly capable of sustaining itself.”

Embroidering its narrative with snippets of ancient Hollywood flying saucer flicks, the doc does a clever job of presenting UFOs as an exclusively pop-cultural phenomenon, circa 1952. No mention, of course, of the scientists and Air Force officials who established the independent reality of UFOs in 1948’s Project Sign because that would've complicated Pilkington's premise. But no matter. The real value of “Mirage Men” is watching a hack like Doty justify his mission on camera.

Doty, who has the bland countenance of Kevin Spacey’s office manager in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” was working OSI at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico in the late 1970s when he was assigned to neutralize an electronics entrepreneur named Paul Bennewitz. Bennewitz, described as a flag-waving WWII veteran, recorded strange lights, and other things, near Kirtland and alerted military authorities to what he claimed were UFOs. The "Mirage" storyline is that Bennewitz was unwittingly monitoring classified earthly technology, and that somewhere in the chain of command, it was decided the best way to work this thing was to encourage Bennewitz to believe he’d actually stumbled onto ET. Spoonfeeding him loads of steaming crap, the ruse went on for years and provoked Bennewitz into sharing his increasingly fantastic “discoveries” with politicians and news media, which wrote him off as a kook. Bennewitz eventually lost his business and submitted to psychiatric evaluation before his death in 2003.

Listening to Doty’s spin, years later, is to behold the very portrait of epic gall: “I actually sat down with Paul and said to Paul, ‘Listen Paul, I think you oughtta stop doing this. I think you’ve gone as far as you can go, and this is a friend, this is Richard Doty, a friend,’ it wasn’t Richard Doty, a special agent with OSI talking to him. I said ‘This is a friend talking to you, Paul,’ because I became a friend with him because he was a very wonderful person, and I didn’t want to see him harmed, and I said ‘Paul, stop it, listen to your son, listen to your wife, end it.’”

A friend? Holy *@!#, this guy Doty is a reptile. But at that point in the psyops campaign, nothing Doty could do or say could derail Bennewitz from his sacred destiny to find the space aliens. But Doty didn't stop there; his BS would go on to burn researchers Bill Moore and Linda Howe, whose stories are well documented. What lingers now are the echoes of this blithe functionary’s twisted reasons for cooperating with the documentary in the first place. Doty, the admitted liar, now insists 20 percent of the UFO coverup stuff he was putting out there — he never gets specific — is actually true. So open wide, kids, here's another meaningless mouthful:

“There are so many people, so many people within government, who have come forth with information saying it did happen, it’s real. The reason I’m doing it is because I asked the government a long time ago, hey, what am I supposed to say? And they’re gonna say you stick to the fact that it’s not real. But when the government tried to discredit me on something, then I went to them and said ‘Listen, you’re telling everybody that it’s not real and I know it’s real. And you know it’s real, and all these other people know it’s real. So I’m gonna tell the public what I know about it and the government said basically, ‘Do what you’ve gotta do.’”

Doty is a radioactive specimen you wouldn’t trust if he pointed out that your own hair was on fire. “You’re looking at Richard Doty,” concludes another researcher, “and by looking at him, you’re taking a glimpse into a whole machine that now has a life of its own.” Maybe that's true. And if Doty's self-serving confessional is what passes for contrition these days, shoot me your email and I'll forward you a Nigerian cash transfer proposition you're gonna love. Yep, "Mirage Men" wants you to walk away from this whole UFO scene in disgust. To that end, it's an incredibly effective piece of work.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Echoes From the Past: The MJ-12 Disinformation Scheme Still Reverberates


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Echoes From the Past: The MJ-12 Disinformation Scheme Still Reverberates

By Robert Hastings
www.ufohastings.com
5-17-14

     A spotlight has recently been directed at the UFO-related MJ-12 disinformation ploy originating at Kirtland AFB’s Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) in the 1980s, involving now-retired AFOSI Agent Richard Doty, who forged government documents and engaged in other nefarious actions—under orders, he claims—to direct interest away from bona fide, secret Air Force operations.

Ten months ago, Open Minds’ Alejandro Rojas filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Air Force, in an effort to more fully understand what had taken place. His article about the effort was recently posted at:
 

Not surprisingly, Rojas was given no new information; the documents he received from AFOSI were first released to researcher Barry Greenwood and others in the early 1980s.

Nevertheless, Rojas should be credited with making an effort to address the still-reverberating episode, given that self-described UFO “historian” Richard Dolan and others are currently promoting the supposed legitimacy of the bogus material forged by Doty, his civilian shill Bill Moore, and (more recently, in the MJ-12 2.0 caper) Tim Cooper.

Because I was one of the original investigators of the MJ-12 operation, together with Greenwood and the late Bob Todd, I can offer some insight into the origins, early execution, and still-unfolding repercussions of this colossal and partially-successful effort at misdirection.

My first exposé, “The MJ-12 Affair: Facts, Questions, Comments”, released in March 1989, may be read at:



My more recent update, titled “Operation Bird Droppings”, published in March 2009, is at:


I also recommend Barry Greenwood’s excellent article regarding his own findings on MJ-12, at:


In keeping with disinformation-disseminator Doty’s many false or half-true statements over the years, his current position on what occurred is still intentionally misleading. Indeed, the film Mirage Men unknowingly circulated the retired OSI agent’s latest spin regarding the reasons underlying the MJ-12 gambit, which I expose at length below, in my reposted article about Doty’s interactions with the late Paul Bennewitz.

The unfortunate government contractor had stumbled upon, and began to publicize, a legitimate secret being kept by Kirtland’s OSI—ongoing UFO incursions at the nearby nuclear weapons depository, the Manzano Weapons Storage Area—and, therefore, needed to be neutralized.

The person selected for the job was Richard Doty who, before the first phase of the operation fizzled out in the late-1980s, had also successfully duped cattle mutilation expert Linda Moulton Howe, UFO researcher Stanton Friedman, and a host of other persons interested in the secrets the Air Force might hold relating to the Roswell Incident and other aspects of the UFO phenomenon.

Most of the details relating to the overall picture may be read in my Bird Droppings article. Here, however, I will again present a brief summary of the operation involving Doty’s first target, Paul Bennewitz:


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Ex-Air Force OSI Agent Admits Hoaxing Major UFO Accounts | VIDEO


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Richard Doty

Ex-Air Force Law Enforcement Agent
Says He Hoaxed Major UFO Mythologies


By Alejandro Rojas
openminds.tv
5-13-14

      I have been researching UFOs for many years, delving deep into the underbelly of UFO lore, and one name seems to frequently pop up. His name is Richard Doty, and in the 1980s he was a special agent for the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He claims that while he was there he was tasked with hoaxing documents and feeding false information to UFO researchers. The Air Force refuses to comment on whether they knew of his activities and whether his claims of partaking in this activity at the behest of his superiors is accurate.

It wouldn't be so bad if his stories of UFO crashes and secret UFO management groups, such as the fabled MJ-12, were not the subject of a large amount of books, movies, video games, television shows, and who knows what else. He says he even acted as a consultant for The X-Files, which is one of the very few tall tales of his that might actually be true.

Doty's story has changed over the years, and some of the details of the stories are conflicting. In frustration with this whole situation, I decided to send the Air Force Freedom of information Act (FOIA) requests to find out more. I also wanted an official response regarding whether he was ordered to create these hoaxed documents.

At first the AFOSI Public Affairs Chief was very helpful. She expedited my request, and I received some very interesting documents. I was told that when my FOIA request was fulfilled, she would help me find someone I could talk to for an official statement. However, once I got the documents, she would no longer talk to me.

What was in the documents was very interesting and corroborated some of the legend around the Doty affair. The story begins . . ..

Thursday, May 08, 2014

Allegations of UFO Disinformation; An Open Letter to the U.S. Air Force



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Open letter to the U.S. Air Force regarding allegations of UFO disinformation

By Alejandro Rojas
openminds.tv
5-6-14

     I sent this letter to the U.S. Air Force on July 11, 2013 to solicit an official response to allegations by ex-special agent Richard Doty of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) that he participated in spreading UFO disinformation. Among his claims, he says he broke into a civilian’s home, created hoaxed documents, and lied to two U.S. Senators. Some of these are criminal acts that he claims he committed on orders from his superiors in the AFOSI. Whether or not this is true, these acts were committed while he was an AFOSI special agent, and I believe the U.S. Air Force needs to respond.

After working with the AFOSI public affairs department on Freedom of Information Act Requests (FOIA) related to this incident, I was told I would be able to speak to someone who could give me an official response. However, once I received the documents I was told they had nothing further to say.


Allegations of Criminal Misconduct

Air Force Office of Special Investigations Agent Richard Doty claims to have partaken in the acts of misinforming members of congress, breaking into the private residence of a civilian government contractor, and disseminating known forgeries of government documents while on active duty in the 1980s. Furthermore, he claims to have committed these acts on the orders of his superiors at AFOSI.

Although his claims have garnered a large amount of public attention, including having been the subject of several books (including one by New York Times Journalist Howard Blum), and were directly related to the government contractor mentioned above having been temporarily committed to a mental health facility, the U.S. Air Force has yet to comment on the veracity of his claims.

Was the U.S. Air Force involved with these criminal acts, as claimed by Doty, and if not what was done regarding his conduct? . . .

Friday, December 20, 2013

Project Grudge: Lt. Colonel Brown Reveals His Involvement in Early UFO Investigations | VIDEO


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Lt Colonel Charles Brown

By csetiweb
YouTube
12-6-13

     After returning from WWII an Air Force hero, Lt. Col. Brown worked in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. He was assigned to work on Project Grudge where he was responsible for investigating UFO's and came to recognize that on some cases there were no viable conventional explanations. He later came to believe that Project Blue Book was a deliberate whitewash to the public. Among others, he was privy to reports of cases where four independent radars were tracking objects that were traveling 5000 miles an hour. . . .

Thursday, February 10, 2011

James Carrion: ". . . I Began to Have Doubts About the Real Purpose Behind the MUFON-BAASS Project"

Skinwalker Ranch
          

     
Hunting the Skinwalker

By James Carrion
Follow The Magic Thread
2-8-11

     It was after uncovering some disturbing information about the Skinwalker Ranch owned by Robert Bigelow that I began to have doubts about the real purpose behind the MUFON-BAASS project. Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) is an aerospace company allegedly involved in discovering novel and cutting edge space technologies and contracted MUFON in 2009 to perform UFO investigations on its behalf. In the following email to the MUFON Board of Directors, I summarized my research findings and my misgivings about any further relationship with BAASS.

Note that this email has been modified to remove identifying information about the confidential source here called Brad Newton who is still under a non-disclosure agreement from his work with the now defunct National Institute for Discovery Sciences (NIDS), also an organization founded by Robert Bigelow.

CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT FORWARD – FOR MUFON BOARD ONLY – HIGHLY SENSITIVE

Gentlemen,

Since taking on the MUFON International Director position, I have been in observation mode trying to understand the true nature of the UFO phenomenon. In 2007 I personally financed a “meeting of the minds” in Fort Collins to try and gain insight into what the status quo was in Ufology. I have personally investigated high level cases such as Kinross and the California Drones and have found myself on the receiving end of a constant flow of disinformation. What I have observed over the last three years seriously disturbs me.

It is my belief that there are forces at work here that “manage” Ufology for their own purposes. When an organization like MUFON starts to operate outside of the box “they” intend to keep us in, then these controlling forces move in to tighten their grip. Case in point is MUFON’s relationship with BAASS. Although John (Schuessler) knows who BAASS’ sponsors are, I am no longer comfortable with the MUFON-BAASS relationship. Let me explain in detail.

Just last month, I financed my own trip to Utah with Dr. Frank Salisbury who was looking to republish his book “The Utah UFO Display” and was looking for new material to add. Since the book covered the Uintah Basin in North East Utah where the Bigelow Skinwalker Ranch is located, Salisbury sought and was denied access to the Ranch. I also asked and was denied access. Instead, we spent our time interviewing new witnesses around the Ranch. Our contact person was Brad Newton (real name withheld) who has researched the area for many years. What I learned from Brad is what has led to the doubts I now harbor.

Brad worked with NIDS on the ranch and mentioned that after an alleged sighting, metal rods were found on the ranch that were sent to NIDS for analysis. Brad was in contact with a NIDS scientist who informed him that the rods were made from Element 115 and did not originate on earth, and that he (the scientist) had worked at Area 51 on a reverse engineering project where they had accumulated 300 pounds of this material. This in a nutshell is the Bob Lazar story.

Through Dr. Salisbury, we were able to interview the brother of the original owner of the ranch who sold it to the Shermans who subsequently sold it to Bigelow. The ranch owner’s brother was adamant that there was no UFO or strange activity on the ranch prior to the Sherman’s purchase, contrary to what was discussed in the Skinwalker Book and that he (the owner’s brother) had personally received a call from Bigelow trying to convince him otherwise. I found this to be extremely odd and disturbing. I also subsequently learned of a business relationship between Lazar and Bigelow (documented in the MUFON archives).

What I see in the MUFON-BAASS relationship is active management of MUFON’s work, despite assurances from BAASS otherwise. By carefully controlling the purse strings with each contract evaluation period, they are ensuring they receive a constant flow of information from MUFON while also making sure that MUFON does not end up with operational funding to stabilize its long term financial well being. Who’s on the receiving end of this information? Since that will not be disclosed to MUFON, I cannot state for sure, but I don’t feel confident that the information is being used for what MUFON was originally informed.

If you were able to listen to my speech at the Symposium or read my paper in the Proceedings or read my blog, then you know where I stand on the active management and control of information on the part of governmental or quasi governmental forces in our work. Conspiracy theory? Yes. Plausible? Yes.

MUFON has an obligation to the public to fulfill its mission. I for one believe that we cannot adequately do so as long as we are actively managed, nor can I in good faith stand by while this is happening. Those are my personal feeling however and as such I don’t want to speak for the organization when making the decision to renew or terminate our contract with BAASS. I leave it to the Board for a decision on this.

I have already stated my decision to step down as the International Director, and in large part my decision has been based on my research. I will continue to work within MUFON and for MUFON’s long term viability, but I will not stand by and be managed. My time will be better spent actively uncovering the trail left by the forces of disinformation and my efforts focused on uncovering the truth. In the end that is all that is important.

Sincerely,
James


John Schuessler responded with the following email:

James,

I am concerned for you if you are basing decisions on what Brad has said. It is not my intent to argue the point, but the whole Element 115 thing is pure bunk. Don't take my word for it, just ask any scientist. Both CSICOP scientists and MUFON scientists like Stanton Friedman have thoroughly debunked Lazar's Element 115 story. If you could get Element 115 (or Elements 114 and 116) to be stable enough to make them into rods, they would make extremely heavy rods. I can find no one except Bob Lazar and now Brad that believes there are Element 115 rods anywhere, let alone dumping them out on the ground in an uncontrolled environment on a ranch in Utah.

As for the rods found on the Skinwalker Ranch, I was on the NIDS Scientific Advisory Board back in those days and can verify that rods were found. They were not heavy Element 115 rods. Instead, they were thin carbon rods that are used in arc lamps to make very bright lights in field operations. I have personally used this type of rods in arc lamp operations many years ago.

John


My email response to John follows:

Hi John,

That is my point exactly. Lazar and element 115 are bunk but it appears to me that the NIDS scientist was promoting it to Brad. Why? I found Brad to be honest in his demeanor and he is held in high esteem by everyone we came into contact with including many of the witnesses we interviewed. Brad has no motive for promoting the Bob Lazar story but it was communicated to him nonetheless.

Actually, it was the former ranch owner’s brother’s assertions that cemented for me that something is amiss. The Skinwalker ranch story did not play out as described in the book and that coupled with us being denied access does not add up for me.

I can only conclude that BAASS is at someone else’s beck and call. The Board does not need to agree with me on this, which is why I am leaving the contract renewal response to the Board.

Best wishes,
James


It was after this email exchange that the MUFON Board bypassed me as acting MUFON International Director and secretly engaged BAASS in renegotiating the MUFON-BAASS contract while purposely keeping me out of the loop. As you can see from the email exchange, this secretive communication was altogether unnecessary because I deferred to the majority decision of the MUFON Board.

Unethical behavior on the part of the MUFON Board aside, the following questions still beg for answers: What is really happening at the Skinwalker Ranch and why are serious investigators being denied access? Why was a NIDS scientist pushing the Bob Lazar story which is a known farce? Why does the book “Hunt for the Skinwalker” describe paranormal activity present on the ranch prior to the Shermans purchasing it when a close surviving relative of the former owner denies such activity? Why is the truth about activities on the ranch being censored through non-disclosure agreements?

It appears that once again in Ufology there are more questions than answers; common fare for a field where the waters are muddied but never cleared. If you consider yourself a truth seeker then perhaps it is time to take a stand against these forces of ambiguity that seek only to obscure the truth rather than bring it to light. It is time to promote truth and not mystery in a field that has too many mysteries already. It is time to reveal the truth by not compromising ethics or principles or by allowing truth to be censored. It is time to stop falling prey to fear and lies but instead to hunt the Skinwalker forces of deception in their own territory. Who is up for a hunting trip?