THE UFO CHRONICLES

Showing posts with label Condon Report. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Fifty Years Ago, the Air Force Tried to Make UFOs Go Away

Fifty years ago today, the U.S. Air Force announced the closing of its most famous UFO investigation program, Project Blue Book. While the government’s goal was to “make UFOs go away,” it forced a community to take matters into its own

By MJ Banias
Popular Mechanics
12-17-19

hands. And it worked: If the events of this year alone are any indication, UFOs remain as hot of a topic in the general conscience than ever. But we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Blue Book.

[...]

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See Also:

The Lost Files of Project Blue Book

Hynek’s Last Contract with the Project Blue Book UFO Program

Project Blue Book Revelations: More Daylight Photographs of a Flying Saucer [UFO] Over New York (1955) | UFO CHRONICLE

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Saturday, April 27, 2019

New Navy UFO Guidelines – What Does That Mean?

On the evening of April 23, 2019, Politico dropped a story from defense editor Mr. Bryan Bender entitled, “U.S. Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs.” The headline alone, is bound to get anyone excited that has been following UFOs or the somewhat recent (December 2017) revelation of a “Secret Pentagon UFO Study” known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program or AATIP. Although a lot of details surrounding that specific program remain elusive; the fact remains this era in the field of UFO research remains intriguing and compelling. So this new headline by Politico should do nothing but invoke further intrigue.

By John Greenewald
The Black Vault
4-25-19

However, despite the headline’s use of the acronym “UFO” — the first line in the Politico story re-defines it to how the U.S. Navy phrases it in the new regulation drafts – “unidentified aircraft.” What exactly does that mean, if anything at all?

There have been many rumors for years that UFOs are not called UFOs, but rather, other catchy acronyms and phrases are used to stop people like me from finding programs via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) etc. Since my discovery of Air Force Instruction 10-206 (and the blatant attempt to cover it up) I wrestle with the question on if they would do that. Air Force Instruction 10-206 specifically outlined “UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT” or “UFO” reporting procedures. They did not hide a thing with that phrasing, and those UFO reporting procedures stretched well into the 2000s before it was covered-up/changed (if you are not familiar with that story, read this link; it’s fascinating). I wonder is that document proof they really just don’t care if they use the phrasing of UFOs, as they did with that instruction? Or is the blatant cover-up of that UFO reporting procedure the learning lesson for them to use different phrasing – like “unidentified aircraft?” We can’t definitively answer that for the USAF, but that leads me back to the new drafts being generated by the Navy....

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Thursday, July 05, 2018

UFOs Hoaxed by Military Pilots

The study of UFOs has always been complicated by hoaxes, either from false reports or by events staged to fool witnesses.

The Air Force’s “Status Report: Project Blue Book - Report No. 10” from 27 February 1953 reviewed the record-setting year of 1952, and of the 1000 cases analyzed, less than two percent of them were found to be deliberate fakes, “Hoaxes 1.67%”

By Curt Collins
www.blueblurrylines.com
6-30-18

The problem is that within the remaining cases, we cannot know what fragment of hoaxes were successful and remained undetected, possibly remaining on record classified under “insufficient information” or as an “unknown.”

One particularly interesting species of hoax is when an actual aircraft is involved, but the pilot operates it in a manner to deceive witnesses. This results in sincere testimony by the witnesses, but of a false UFO. The pilots perpetrating the hoaxes are unlikely to confess since it could result in anything from the loss of their pilot’s license to criminal prosecution. Or in the case of military pilots, the loss of their flying career.

[...]

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See Also:

MJ-12: The Hoax That Quickly Became a Disinformation Operation

Perpetrators of National UFO Hoax Reunite

UPDATE:Brookhaven Lab Report is a Hoax!

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Sunday, June 24, 2018

The CIA's Infiltration of NICAP (The National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena)?

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book, Flying Saucers From Beyond the Earth: A UFO Researcher’s Odyssey, by Gordon Lore, scheduled for publication on October 1, 2018, by BearManor Media-FW

The CIA Connection

Sometime after I became the NICAP Assistant Director during the Summer of 1967, Stuart Nixon, a cocky young man, came to

By Gordon Lore
The UFO Chronicles
6-22-18

NICAP as a new staff member. (Keyhoe later told me that Nixon had been hired as “a favor” to “a friend.” As he continued, I got the idea that the friend may have been Colonel Joseph Bryan, Chairman of NICAP’s Board of Governors.)

During his first week at work, Stuart approached my desk and, with a somewhat stumbling aura of authority, announced: “Gordon, I am here to coordinate some changes that will need to be made.” Suddenly, he drew back, as if he had said too much.

“What changes are you talking about, Stuart?” I asked. “Who sent you here?”

“Oh, never mind,” he nervously replied. “Sorry…. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m just here to help you guys through the rough times.”

A red flag had been sent up. Shortly after that, Stuart told me that the NICAP photographer, William (“Bill”) MacIntyre—who had also mysteriously come into the picture at about the same time as Nixon—had been shot down in his helicopter in Vietnam in 1965. He was supposedly on a secret mission with the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.), Stuart openly remarked with some degree of admiring glee.

It didn’t take me long to wonder if Nixon may have been sent there to recruit me for a possible C.I.A. takeover of NICAP. I had heard from Dick Hall that two of the agency’s operatives had visited the NICAP office before I came on board and spent several hours scrutinizing the sighting reports. I soon realized that Don Keyhoe himself may have opened the door for that eventuality by appointing Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first Director of the C.I.A., Chairman of the NICAP Board of Governors. The Admiral and Keyhoe had been friends since their days long ago as cadets at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Other board members—including Colonel Joseph Bryan and Dewey Fournet—had also been C.I.A. operatives. They were among the many contacts Keyhoe had established in the military, the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies. They would serve him well in obtaining UFO reports he could use in his books and at NICAP. I was also beginning to realize that this infiltration would serve them well if they really had the goal of taking over control of the world’s largest UFO organization.

An Early CI.A. Infiltration?

NICAP may have been infiltrated by the Central Intelligence Agency from its very beginning. According to a UFO Updates article by early NICAP supporter, Jan Aldrich, during the group’s first year under the original Director, T. Townsend Brown, “several mysterious persons managed to fit themselves into NICAP’s structure.” One of these was Nicolas de Rochefort, a Russian immigrant who was a French and Russian script writer for Voice of America. Rochefort was also a member of the C.I.A.’s Psychological Warfare Staff. Another earlier NICAP staff member during its first year of operation was Bernard J.O. Carvalho, from Portugal, who was “involved in C.I.A.-owned companies.”

By the end of 1956, Brown’s leadership came to an end due to his inability to successfully handle the NICAP funds. Don Keyhoe took over as the Director and started to beef up NICAP’s prestige by appointing some prominent individuals to the group’s Board of Governors. Meanwhile, Admiral Hillenkoetter began making a number of positive statements on UFO reality. Don Keyhoe was happy about this, but Hillenkoetter’s position on the board became tentative when Keyhoe became a fierce opponent of government secrecy and pushed for Congressional hearings during the early 1960s.

Hillenkoetter quickly resigned from the NICAP Board. He later said that the group had gone as far as it could and “no further criticism should be aimed at the Air Force for its handling of UFOs.” There was also speculation that, as a former Director of the agency, his pro-UFO statements were causing “considerable embarrassment" to the CIA.

Had the stage been set for NICAP’s eventual downfall? It seems that was the case.

That evening, I called Don Keyhoe at his home in Luray, Virginia, and told him what Nixon had related to me. There was an uneasy period of silence.

“What do you think, Major?” I asked. “Could Stuart Nixon be a C.I.A. operative?”

“No, he’s too stupid for that,” Keyhoe told me. “He hasn’t got the brains.”

I wondered if either Hillenkoetter or Bryan had asked the Major to pipe Nixon aboard the NICAP ship of UFO state. But further pressing by me on the matter yielded nothing more from Keyhoe.

The Final Days

Following the public release of the Condon Report, the prospects for NICAP continuing as a viable UFO organization quickly took a downward spiral. Adding fuel to the fire, unfortunately, was Keyhoe himself. Being an organizational and money manager was not his cup of tea. Some had even compared him to “a second Townsend Brown.”

In a secret meeting on December 3, 1969, the NICAP Board with Colonel Joseph Bryan III presiding, fired both Keyhoe and myself. It soon became apparent that I had to be terminated as a convenient “scapegoat.” Dick Hall quickly came to my defense. On December 9, he wrote a lengthy letter to the Board of Governors explaining why I had consulted with him in my attempt to help put NICAP back on a safe financial footing. Hall wrote:

Gordon has consulted with me at critical times in taking the steps which have now led to his being summarily fired…. Until now, I have kept silent about internal NICAP matters in the hope that quiet reforms could be made and a constructive program continued. Now I am incensed both by the injustice of what has been done and by the crude manner in which it was done.

On December 5, Gordon was informed by telegram… that his services were no longer required. He was given no advance notice. Furthermore, when he walked into the office to collect his personal effects, he discovered that they had been searched, his desk had been rifled and all the door locks had been changed by Stuart Nixon… allegedly acting under instructions from [NICAP Board Member J.B. Hartranft]. Exposure of such Gestapo-like tactics is sufficient commentary on them.

What grave sins did Gordon commit which resulted in his being treated like a common criminal? Over recent months, quietly to avoid a damaging uproar, he discreetly approached members of the Board to inform them of the seriously deteriorating situation, hoping they would intervene and lead the way in making long overdue reforms. In my view, he was very conscientiously and properly attempting to correct long-standing problems and to save NICAP from the scrap heap….

It is anger over the injustice that has been done, and the fateful decisions made in secret, which now motivate me to alert the entire Board to the tragic state of affairs.

I fought many of the same battles as Gordon… and have some feeling for what he has gone through…. On more than one occasion, I recognized the need for the Board to be kept informed and drafted detailed reports to [them]. These were always pigeon-holed by Major Keyhoe. When that approach failed, I initiated the Affiliate/Subcommittee Newsletter, with copies to the Board so that you would at least have some general indication of how things were going. But it could not include the same detail as would private reports. Gordon went further because the situation and times called for it, but now he has been made a scapegoat….

I can assure you that both Gordon and I have, on the one hand, been very reluctant to hurt or thwart Major Keyhoe in any way or, on the other hand, to see NICAP reach the state that it presently has. Some present and former staff members have been after Major Keyhoe’s scalp, but Gordon and I have always argued for systematic reform through the Board….

Gordon found himself in the unfortunate position of mediating between an unhappy staff and an adamant Major Keyhoe who had lost his grip on things and who remained remote from the office. For the man in the middle, this can be an extremely frustrating position.

As funds declined, staff members were laid off…. As debts increased , office space was cut in half. Virtually all research and writing ground to a halt. Gordon had only two staff members…. The situation became truly critical. The need for rebuilding was obvious, so Gordon approached two members of the Board in confidence and sought their help…. Gordon’s role was to alert and involve the Board without causing a panic because he was dedicated to the continuance of NICAP on an improved basis….

I am saddened by the deterioration of NICAP and see no hope for its future. In firing Gordon Lore, the Executive Board has removed the last hope for a gradual change-over to a publications program which might put NICAP back on its feet financially….

A couple of years later, I learned through Just Cause that Colonel Bryan was, indeed, an active CIA agent even as he led the charge to fire Keyhoe and I.

To this day, as 2017 draws to a close, I am still saddened by the collapse of NICAP. During its years under Keyhoe’s direction, the organization had been responsible for bringing a high degree of scientific credibility to the well-documented and investigated UFO sightings. And it had been the linchpin in persuading many scientists such as Jim McDonald to continue their own efforts in keeping the well-documented and investigated sighting reports in the eyes of both the public and the scientific community.

Additional information concerning NICAP’s final year is included in Chapter Four of my book Connections: A Lifetime Journey Through the World of Celebrity (2017), also published by BearManor Media.

[This excerpt is from the book Flying Saucers From Beyond the Earth: A UFO Researcher’s Odyssey, by Gordon Lore, scheduled for publication on October 1, 2018, by BearManor Media. Gordon was the Assistant Director/Vice President of NICAP from 1965 to 1970 and the President of UFO Research Associates (UFOR) from 1970 to 1980. He worked directly with Major Donald E. Keyhoe, Richard H. Hall and Dr. James E. McDonald, among others such as Francis Ridge and Barry Greenwood, and considered them close friends and mentors. Gordon is also the senior author of the best-selling Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective (Prentice-Hall, 1968) and the sole author of Strange Effects From UFOs (NICAP, 1969). He is also the author of The Earle Family of Newfoundland and Labrador (DRC Publishing, 2015), The Priest of Kali: A Novelized Biography Based on the Life and Spiritual Ecstasies of Sri Ramakrishna (Amazon, 2017) and Connections: A Lifetime Journey Through the World of Celebrity (BearManor Media, 2017). Gordon may be contacted at Gordon.lore@gmail.com and www.gordonlore.com.]

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Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Scientists Probing UFO Mystery | UFO CHRONICLE – 1967

Scientists Probing UFO Mystery - Morning Call (Allentown Pennsylvania 7-23-1967)

... Dr Edward Condon, physicist, is in a sense looking for UFOs. He heads a team of scientists investigating reports of UFOs, which some persons believe are visitors from distant planets....

The Morning Call
7-23-1967

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Wednesday, August 23, 2017

The CIA's Secret Counterintelligence Project

When the U. S. Air Force, under Congressional pressure, appointed Dr. Edward U. Condon of the University of Colorado to head a purported "independent scientific study of UFOs" in 1966, it was the end result of the CIA secretly taking charge of UFO intelligence in late 1957, having gained control of "'scientific intelligence" within the intelligence community. Between 1958 and 1966, the Air Force had been stuck in the publicly humiliating position of having to pretend it was the U.S. government agency responsible for studying UFO

By W. Todd Zechel
Investigative Journalist
Former NSA/ASA Communications Specialist
(c) 2006

sightings and related events for whatever intelligence could be obtained. But in reality it was the CIA that had wrestled control away from the USAF by proving to the National Security Council (NSC) that the Air Force had completely bungled the job and was incapable of handling it without covering itself in proverbial eggs.

Dr. Condon had worked on the ultra-secret Manhattan Project during WW II, helping develop the Atomic Bomb. Later he became the head of the National Bureau of Standards, which assisted in American scientific, technical development. But in early 1951 he suddenly left the Bureau to become the director of research and development at Corning Cookware in upstate New York. But unlike the previous director, Condon did not specialize in developing pots and pans at Corning; but instead he spent his time developing missile and rocket nose cones and heat shields/ablation shields for America's space program -- Condon had been and was a key member of the National Aeronautics Advisory Committee (NACA), the forerunner of NASA. In fact, Condon is reputed (within supersecret circles) to have based his heat shield developments on the analysis of recovered extraterrestrial material*, after he left the National Bureau of Standards at the behest of President Truman.

In reality, Condon was chosen to head the UFO study in order to get the Air Force off the hook, the USAF being in the position whereby it had to pretend it was studying UFOs, while behind the scenes and in secret the CIA was conducting the real study. In point of fact, the CIA would utilize the Condon Committee to collect UFO intell, while at the same time promising the USAF it would ultimately debunk and dismiss UFOs, which was done in what became known as "The Condon Report."

In February 1967, Condon and four other scientists associated with his study secretly met with CIA officials at the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) in downtown Washington, D.C., where U-2, SR-71, and satellite spy photos were analyzed utilizing state-of-the-art computer enhancement techniques. After being briefed and given a dog-and-pony show by NPIC's founder and director, Art Lundahl, who implored Condon's group to obtain some good UFO photos/films for NPIC to study, Condon issued a nationwide appeal through the media for citizens to send the Condon Committee UFO photos/films to assist the purported "impartial" study of UFOs, post-haste. In reality, the photographic evidence was being sought for the CIA to further its secret study of UFOs, on-going since the early 1950s but without a mandate until late 1957.

In April 1967, a Condon Committee researcher, Dr. Gerald Rothberg of Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N.J., was dispatched to Harrisburg, Penn., to investigate an on-going local UFO flap. Accompanying Rothberg, disguised as research assistants, were two covert CIA officers, one of whom was Fred Durant, a highly experienced and knowledgeable CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence officer who typically operated under a cover of being a civilian scientist, lastly with Avco-Everett Research Lab, where he was reputed to be conducting R&D with recovered E.T. material*. Durant and his partner brought with them a van load of high-tech detection equipment such as frequency scanners, plus advanced photographic gear. The CIA men mounted a special "all-sky" tracking camera atop Harrisburg's largest hospital, interviewed local civilian UFO witnesses, and met with the Harrisburg chapter of NICAP, then the nation's largest and most influential civilian UFO group, headed by an anti-UFO secrecy activist, Maj. (Ret) USMC, Donald Keyhoe.

Condon's most valuable service to the CIA, however, began in 1968 when another Condon Committee press release invited Soviet Union scientists to participate in his purported "independent scientific study" of UFOs. Condon was just dangling bait for the CIA, trying to get Soviet officials into a "non-aggression" treaty on UFOs. Subsequently, Condon "researchers" -- some of whom were covert CIA officers -- met with Soviet Bloc scientists in Eastern Europe, where the treaty parlay was set in motion.

According to information provided in confidence to the author by the late Art Lundahl, founder and original director of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), the highly proficient CIA center where U-2, SR-71, and satellite recon photos were analyzed, in February 1969 a high-ranking Soviet KGB official flew to Washington, D. C., in order to meet with the CIA hierarchy and work out a sort of non-aggression pact on UFOs whereby each side would pledge not to falsely claim the UFOs hovering over the other's sensitive military installations were secret devices which belonged to them. This pact was put in place in order to try to prevent an accidental nuclear exchange or war triggered by UFO intrusions and
overflights.

Interestingly, Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the CIA's first director in 1947, was very vociferous about the dangers of accidental nuclear war triggered by UFO intrusions and overflights, either in the Soviet Union or America -- to the point he allowed NICAP Director Don Keyhoe to publicly quote him warning as such while he served on Keyhoe's NICAP Board of Governors. It's not known if the Admiral ever learned of the ultra-secret "non-aggression" pact between the Russians and Americans, signed in 1969, but he must have breathed a sigh of relief if he did.

In the end, the Condon Report, released in late 1969, was a classic example of CIA disinformation, for it not only dismissed UFOs but also called for the USAF to cease investigating them, no matter how concerned about UFO intrusions witnesses might be.

Thereafter, UFO intelligence became a matter for the CIA to secretly collect and analyze, even though in the fall of 1975 UFOs were buzzing USAF SAC B-52 bases and missile sites, hovering over and, in the Air Force's own words, "demonstrating a clear intent toward nuclear weapons."

But Fred Durant, author of the CIA's Robertson Panel Report in 1953, perceived the greatest danger of UFO activity was the public and news media attention given to them. Durant had outlined a program of debunking and downplaying UFOs in order to prevent what he called "a morbid national psychology," which might foster "a harmful distrust of duly constituted authority."

The Condon Report sealed the lid on the coffin in which the truth about UFOs was buried. However, the UFO or flying saucer misinformation war between the U. S. and the USSR had been on--going since about 1950. The Soviets had suspected from the early days of saucer sightings in America that it was all a misinformation game designed to scare them into believing the U. S. had developed some sort of fantastic secret aerial weapon (which the USAF tried to reinforce by loudly proclaiming it was developing the AVRO disc** in the early 1950s). Conversely, in America some top scientific advisors to the Air Force [demurred] -- such as Dr. Anthony Mirarchi at the Air Force Geophysics Lab in Cambridge, Mass., which was receiving films of UFOs shot at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., shot by telescopic tracking cameras; Mararchi knew the UFOs surveilling White Sands were real but was convinced they were an amazing technological advancement by the Soviets.

The Soviets had gone so far as to stage an "accidental" exposure of a supposedly "Top Secret" schematic of a (bogus) Soviet-built flying saucer to an American spy in Moscow in 1950. Then in 1953 the Russians tried to reinforce this misinformation by planting a story in a Vienna, Austria, newspaper which claimed a flying saucer had crashed on Norway's Spitzbergen Island, and it had Russian markings on internal parts and matched almost exactly the bogus schematic exposed to an American spy in Moscow in 1950.

After Condon had buried the truth about UFOs with the study he headed and the report it generated, all designed to get the Air force off the hook and take UFO research underground where the CIA would answer to no-one, the public was only partly persuaded; but academia and politicians swallowed it like the proverbial hook, line, and sinker. Now, however, all manner of nonsense became part of the public forum on UFOs; but still, in spite of Fred Durant's gloomy predictions, America did not fall apart, the Soviet Union did.

The CIA's motto, borrowed from the Bible, says: "Know ye the truth, and the truth shall set ye free." Sadly, America has yet to be set free by learning the truth about UFOs being withheld by the CIA and other U. S. government agencies.

* Note: The E.T. material studied and mentioned in this report has nothing whatsoever to do with the Roswell, N. M., incident of 1947, which was in truth the debris from the crash of a cluster of six balloons launched June 14, 1947, from White Sands as part of a Top Secret experiment to develop a recoverable sniffer of atomic tests in the Soviet Union. [LWB note: this being Zechel's bias favoring the contentious Mogul balloon theory for the Roswellian crash-retrieval/cover-up case.]

** The AVRO disc was just part of a U.S. Air Force attempt to misinform/mislead the Soviets, which started about 1953, when the USAF let a contract to Canada's A. V. Roe aviation company purportedly to build a flying saucer for only a few hundred thousand dollars. It was all a hoax designed to fool the Russians and the American public! [LWB note: The U. S. Army also had a hand in that multi-$m R&D contract. Indeed, one of the two "AVROcar's" prototypes became, back in the mid-sixties, an exhibit on the grounds of the U. S. Army Transportation Museum in Fort Eustis, Va.]

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Saturday, August 05, 2017

A Russian UFO Commission, the CIA, Carl Sagan and Mystery Metal

When you get a chance, I would appreciate it if you would let Art Lundahl know that I have been in contact with Carl Sagan about the establishment of the UFO commission in the USSR. While Sagan is very interested in the UFO problem and in what we're doing and also in the recent developments in Russia, he felt reluctant to contact Shklovskii. ...

By Robert Lowe
UFO Project Coordinator
Condon Committee
12-8-1967

There is also some follow-up to do with Lundahl on the meeting that Frank Rand called, in addition to the Sagan thing. Lundahl mentioned ... a report of an analysis that was made of a piece of metal discovered after falling through the atmosphere ....

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Sunday, December 18, 2016

Dr J Allen Hynek Condems 'Condon Report' and Explains 'Swamp Gas' in Kreskin Interview | VIDEO

Editor's Note: J. Allen Hynek condemns the Condon Report and explains the term, "swamp gas" in a rare interview with The Amazing Kreskin.(Original air-date: Jan 17, 1972)

By kreskinsamazingworld's channel
YouTube
11-2-2011

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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

'...The U.S. Air Force Managed To Slither Out of UFO Research...'

And to all a good night

By Billy Cox
De Void
12-22-14

Forty-five years ago this month — as everybody here knows — the U.S. Air Force managed to slither out of UFO research by shutting down Project Blue Book. It did so by hiring the University of Colorado to make its UFO stuff go away, and UC project director Edward Condon was the man who could deliver the goods. Less than a year into his panel's review, Condon declared the subject was “nonsense,” and added, “but I’m not supposed to reach that conclusion for another year.” The USAF got its $313,000 worth when Condon officially announced UFOs were a massive waste of time and beneath the dignity of serious scientists.

But he couldn’t just stop there. In the condescending “Conclusions and Recommendations” portion of the report, Condon actually made a play at equanimity: “We think that all of the agencies of the federal government, and the private foundations as well, ought to be willing to consider UFO research proposals along with the others submitted to them on an opend-minded, unprejudiced basis. While we do not think at present that anything worthwhile is likely to come of such research, each individual case ought to be carefully considered on its own merits.”

Yeah right. Nearly half a century later, anyone who thinks Condon’s poisoned wellwater is safe for mainstream science to drink should check in with British chemist Erol Faruk about how easily institutional thinking accepts dissenting opinion on The Great Taboo today. And yet, this time of year, maybe it’s the egg nog, De Void gets a little sentimental about the prospects for alternative scenarios. Especially after watching Obama shake up the moribund status quo on Cuba last week.

Here’s why the time is now: Despite giving Capitol Hill an 11 percent approval rating, Americans last month not only ratified the most impotent and unpopular legislative body since Harry Truman, they gave it a mandate to do even less as Obama completes the final years of his lame-duck term. Having nothing to lose can be tremendously liberating — witness the president’s gambit on Cuba. To the extent that he can navigate around Congress, the next two years could be the most productive of Obama’s presidency. He could start with another no-brainer, like ending Dick Nixon’s war on weed with a stroke of the pen.

Anyhow, with the 2016 horse race right around the corner — and you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one — how difficult is it to imagine Hillary’s opposition dogging her with every datapoint at its disposal? You wouldn't even need the Beltway crowd to attack her “little green man constituency”; Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingraham, et al, could get that ball rolling easily enough. Or maybe, in an even more perfect world, they’d skip Hillary altogether and lob little green man tomatoes directly at one of Obama’s key insiders. And then, in a surprise flanking maneuver, emboldened by the Cuba momentum, No. 44 takes the mike at a press conference and delivers a what-the-hell:

“You know, folks, it’s been half a century since we took a serious look at UFOs. And given the revolution in digital technology, and given longstanding public interest in the subject, and after extensive discussions with senior White House counsel John Podesta, I’ve decided to take the late great Dr. Condon up on his word by setting up an exploratory panel, for less than one-twelfth the cost of a single Reaper drone, to --”

It’s Christmas, man. 'Tis the season to be jolly.

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Science and UFOs: Part 1—The Condon Committee Con Job

VIDEO | Dr J Allen Hynek On The Amazing World of Kreskin - Says Condon Report Was a Travesty; Explains Swamp Gas Statement

The Air Force's Investigation of The UFO Phenomenon - Project Blue Book | Your Need to Know | VIDEO

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Wednesday, September 04, 2013

UFO Skeptic, Philip J. Klass' Papers On MJ-12 & Condon Report Released To Public

Just Published: never-seen Philip J. Klass papers on MJ-12 and the Condon Report.

By Robert Sheaffer
badufos.blogspot.com
8-2-13

I have just placed on my Historical documents page on Debunker.com some newly-scanned "white papers" and correspondence by the influential skeptic Philip J. Klass (1919-2005) concerning the supposed MJ-12 papers, and a pre-publication critique of the Condon report.

In November, 1968, Klass wrote an advance critique of the not-yet-published Condon Report (University of Colorado study of UFOs), and circulated it to only a very few persons (fortunately, I was one). He notes that the persons involved in the study were supposed to be uncommitted on the the question of UFOs, but several were already UFO believers.

President Truman to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, 24 September 1947

Here are Klass' "White Papers" and other correspondence on the supposed MJ-12 papers (first series only. Even Stanton Friedman is reluctant to defend the MJ-12 papers of the second series!). He explains why they are hoaxes. The discussion involves William L. Moore, Stanton Friedman, Peter A. Gersten. (57 pages)

Here is Klass' explanation of the $1,000 wager that he lost to Stanton Friedman.

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See Also:

UFO Debunker, Philip Klass and the FBI

Philip J. Klass - Ufology's Arch Nemesis has Passed Away at 86

Walking in Phil Klass' Footsteps

Kevin Randle & Phil Klass Debate The Roswell UFO Crash on Larry King Live | VIDEO

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Thursday, August 06, 2009

UFO Believers
Part II

By Frank Warren
The UFO Chronicles
© 2006-2009

For those of us that have been around long enough to watch the transition of the media “reporting” the news to the “editorializing” of it, and some would say as of late the “propagation” of it—many of us realize the power the medium wields which publishes this information. I often have said that “the greatest power on the earth is the media, and that the most powerful people, are those that hold the reins.”

Most military historians can cite the use of, and agree upon the importance of “propaganda” and its sister “censorship.” The layperson may find it surprising that the “powers-that-be” used those very tools from the very introduction (in a public way) to the “UFO phenomenon.”

When UFOs were reported off the coast in 1941 which set off “two alarms” and initiated a “blackout,” in the aftermath the “War Department” over turned “eye witness accounts” of their “Generals in place” and said the actions were “only tests.” Similarly, in February of 1942 it happened again, the powers-that-be discounted the declarations of thousands of witnesses, and gave an “explanation” of jittery war nerves.

As the war progressed and pilots were reporting what they nicknamed, ”Foo Fighters ,” (UFOs trailing our aircraft) a silence order was quickly put into effect. After the war in 1946, the Swedish officials exorcised “censorship” with the media in regards to what would be called Ghost Rockets.

Following the death (in 1947) of two “official UFO investigators” (Brown & Davidson) of the Army’s CIC (Counter Intelligence Corps) in a fiery airplane crash, after meeting “flying saucer witness” Kenneth Arnold the military “put a muzzle on the media” for weeks.

In 1953, a group was put together by the CIA called “The Robertson Panel,” led by its namesake H. P. Robertson, a noted physicist from the California Institute of Technology. The panel consisted of a distinguished group of non-military scientists to study the UFO issue. It included Samuel A. Goudsmit, a nuclear physicist from the Brookhaven National Laboratories; Luis Alvarez, a high-energy physicist; Thornton Page, the deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Operations Research Office and an expert on radar and electronics; and Lloyd Berkner, a director of the Brookhaven National Laboratories and a specialist in geophysics.

Following a very “brief investigation” the panel concluded that the manipulation of information to the public was paramount. The panel recommended to the “National Security Council” that UFO reports be debunked and a policy of public education instituted to reassure the masses of the lack of evidence behind UFOs. It suggested using the media, advertising, business clubs, schools, and even the Disney corporation to get the message across.

The Air Force terminated its (overt) investigation (Project Blue Book) of UFOs in 1969 with the completion of the “Condon Report.” The common consensus amongst Ufologists is that “Blue Book” was at the least a “weak attempt” at investigating the phenomenon, and at most, an “internal cog” of the “debunking process.”

Which brings us back to recent times; back to the media using terms like believe, believers, enthusiasts etc., in regards to reporting the UFO phenomenon. (Noted Ufologist Richard Hall in How to debunk UFOs and Discredit UFO Proponents, writes, “Always refer to them as UFO believers or ETH believers, implying that their position is faith-based.”) Some believe that there exists a conspiracy today executed by those whom hold the reins to what Americans read, see or hear regarding the news, specifically in relation to UFO reports.

Whether the latter is true or not, is open for debate; however, in my view, the past actions of the powers-that-be certainly have had a “psycho-sociological effect” on society, as well as the media and this phenomenon has crossed generations.

Imagine if you will a news report about the “Empire State Building,” with a reporter stating, “Empire State Building believers” gathered today . . . or “Washington Monument believers” stated today . . .. Doesn’t make sense does it. Associating the verb “believers” with a “factual” thing is nonsensical—period! The irony of course is that the term “UFO” was borne by the very agency that was most fervent in its attempts to discredit it.

See Also:

UFO Believers (Part 1)

UFO Ignorance
- Part 1 -

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