Showing posts with label Deception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deception. Show all posts

Monday, February 15, 2021

"The Study of UFOs ... Often Presents in Deceptive, Elusive, and Ambiguous Terms"

Discerning Truth

Discerning Truth


      Misinformation needs no introduction. You've seen it around, and a lot of it piggybacks on fringe subject matter. Sensationalism is a staple of the UFO genre. It can be argued that has to be accepted as the case before meaningful discussion becomes possible.

I asked a few writers and podcasters familiar with UFOs and similar subject matter if they would share some thoughts on how we explore such topics without getting overwhelmed in false information. How do we know what's true and what's not? How do we keep an open mind without making ourselves vulnerable to lies, opportunists, and cult-like thinking?
Jack Brewer
By Jack Brewer
The UFO Trail
2-9-21


Sarah Scoles is a science journalist and writer of many articles published at outlets such as WIRED Science and Popular Science. She is the author of the books Making Contact: Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers. Sarah replied in response to my request for a contribution for this blog post:

Thursday, September 01, 2016

For All Who Want To Prove That Roswell Was an Alien Event – A Challenge Issued By James Carrion

For All Who Want To Prove That Roswell Was an Alien Event – A Challenge Issued By James Carrion

FOIA Pete’s Sake – There’s Roswell Gold in dem Hills!

      I recently pointed out the connection between Carl E. Goldbranson, one of the principal deception planners in the United States and the UFO events of 1947 when Goldbranson’s name was inadvertently disclosed in internal FBI memos. The deception organization that Goldbranson had a long time affiliation with (since 1943) was known as Joint Security Control (JSC) and was subordinate to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So what does this have to do with Roswell? I will get to that, but first a short history lesson on the origins of Joint Security Control.
James Carrion
By James Carrion
historydeceived.blogspot.com
8-30-16

In 1942 when the allies were planning for Operation Torch - the British-American invasion of French North Africa, Fleet Admiral Ernest Joseph King overheard officers at a cocktail party discussing the Torch top secret invasion plans. When Admiral King subsequently found out from his Operations Intelligence Officer Captain George C. Dyer, that 61 persons knew of the plans, King blew a gasket. With such a large number of personnel “in the know”, Torch’s operational security was put at risk.

To mitigate future operational risks, Admiral King in coordination with his Army counterpart General George C. Marshall on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, set up Joint Security Control to prevent such lapses in operational security and made Captain Dyer its first coordinator.

JSC was given broad authority in its original charter and in addition to planning and implementing strategic deception, one of its other primary tasks was to prevent information of military value from falling into the hands of the enemy. This prime directive can be seen in the JSC 1943 charter and reiterated in every revision all the way up to the JSC May 1947 charter, just two months shy of the Roswell incident.

Now let’s dwell on the phrase “information of military value” for a bit. If an extraterrestrial space craft, as Roswell ET proponents believe, crashed on US soil in 1947, was recovered by the Army Air Force and a grand cover-up initiated, then part of the rationale for covering it up would be to maintain exclusive ownership over this technological bonanza. The Cold War was just heating up and the US for damn sure would not want the Russians to have this technology. And which agency just happened to be tasked with keeping such important technology out of the hands of the Soviet Union? Joint Security Control.

Now I would think that the most fervent proponents of the 1947 crash of a UFO near Roswell would be chomping at the bit to explore this new angle. Many of them filled up the FOIA inboxes of the US Air Force, the CIA, the NSA, and every other 3 letter agency in Washington with requests for MJ-12 documents, the alleged organization that initiated the UFO cover up. But unlike the fictional MJ-12, an organization already existed in 1947 to prevent inadvertent disclosure of important military information – Joint Security Control.


So I challenge all who want to prove that Roswell was an alien event to FOIA away for the real organization that would have protected the Roswell secrets - an organization for which real records exist, somewhere in the bowels of a classified Government archive. FOIA for all of the records of Joint Security Control – the real “MJ-12” - not the fake one that sent more than one Ufologist down a deep dark rabbit hole to nowhere.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Mirage Men Conclusively Linked to UFO Summer of '47

Mirage Men Conclusively Linked to UFO Summer of '47

     In his ongoing research to clarify the extent Cold War spy games influenced public perception of the UFO phenomenon, writer and former intelligence analyst James Carrion recently linked military deception planners to the UFO wave of 1947. His latest blog post cites declassified documents that conclusively demonstrate how career intelligence officers, part of a high-level unit now known to have been specifically assembled to execute strategic deception operations, petitioned the FBI for assistance investigating flying saucers. Given the purpose of the unit, titled the Joint Security Control Special Section, and details of the documents quoted, Carrion concludes there would have been no other reason for the interaction with the Bureau than to actively promote a deception plan.
Jack Brewer
By Jack Brewer
ufotrail.blogspot.com
8-23-16

The post is well worth the time to absorb and digest. It contains several relevant points of interest, including key aspects of the career of Col. Carl Goldbranson. The colonel trained extensively in military deception and, according to author and historian Thaddeus Holt, engaged in deception activity during the 1940's and until the end of his career. Holt documented Goldbranson to be one of the most skilled deception planners in the Allied service in his 2004 book, The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War.

Carrion demonstrates Col. Goldbranson to have been the senior member of the deception-tasked Joint Security Control Special Section at the time he was advising FBI personnel on incidents of flying disks. Carrion explained:
This July 21, 1947 FBI memo is extremely important. It unequivocally documents the connection between US strategic deception planners and early UFO events by relating how Colonel Carl Goldbranson petitioned FBI assistance in investigating UFO events. Goldbranson was a WW2 member of Joint Security Control and one of its principal deception planners.
Carrion continued:
The Special Section of JSC consisted of only seven individuals including Goldbranson who as a full bird Colonel would have been the senior member. So for those who question the importance of Goldbranson to this analysis, only one question need be answered. What are the odds that the senior member of the principal US organization and specific section charged with planning and implementing U.S. strategic deception is on record in FBI official memorandum, getting his hands dirty in the UFO controversy of 1947? Goldbranson had no reason to be involved unless he was actively promoting a deception plan.
For those unfamiliar with James Carrion's work, he focuses on the 1946-47 time frame. He cites declassified documents and related materials to present forensic historical analysis. Carrion proposes that a small group of U.S. intelligence personnel masterminded deception operations surrounding reported UFOs for a variety of purposes designed to create military advantages. Learn more in his free book, Anachronism, and keep an eye out for his forthcoming work, The Roswell Deception.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

UFO Wave of 1947 & Human Deception

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Human Deception at Play during the UFO Wave of 1947

Human Deception at Play during the UFO Wave of 1947

      1947 – the year that kick started the modern UFO era and included some of the most seminal events in its history, from the Maury Island incident to the June, 1947 Kenneth Arnold sighting to the July, 1947 Roswell event, as well as the coast to coast flying saucer sightings that dominated the world headlines. In the span of just a few weeks in the summer of 1947, UFOs, then popularly known as flying saucers had become as much a part of Americana as apple pie.

To the modern day UFO believer, the UFO events of 1947
James Carrion
By James Carrion
historydeceived.blogspot.com
8-22-16
provide a rationale for their beliefs - documented evidence that defy explanation and give hope to their view that an extraordinary extraterrestrial intelligence is at the root of the phenomenon. To their debunking detractors, these events are just chalked up to mass hysteria - only of interest to social scientists.

But I propose there was an extraordinary intelligence behind the events of 1947, not extraterrestrial in nature, but as flesh and blood as you or I, an intelligence born out of the exigencies of World War 2 but extended into peacetime as threats of renewed war loomed on the horizon. The humans behind the UFO wave of 1947 were a special breed of soldier – the human deception planners of an organization known as Joint Security Control - subordinate directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Joint Security Control (JSC) was founded during WW2 as the US deception planning counterpart to the British deception organization knows as the London Controlling Section (LCS). Together, JSC and LCS perfected the art of strategic wartime deception, initially in North Africa but then throughout the theater of the European war, including the deception planning that contributed to the success of D-Day. Even after Germany was defeated, JSC developed additional deception plans that would have been carried out during the invasion of the Japanese homeland but these were obviated by Japan’s unconditional surrender after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In May of 1947, JSC received a revised charter, one that authorized it to continue its deception mission not just under wartime conditions but also during times of peace. JSC was tasked with preventing important military information from falling into the hands of the enemy, to control classified information through proper security classification, to correlate, maintain and disseminate all of the information furnished to JSC by the War and Navy Department Bureau of Public Relations, and finally the very important mission of cover and deception planning and implementation.

Before I conclusively draw a connection between early UFO events and JSC personnel, it is important to review the history of US post war deception planning. A Top Secret July 5, 1946 memo from the Office of the Chief of Staff assigned responsibility for the supervision of War Department cover and deception matters to the Director of Plans and Operations. ...

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Considerations of the Work of James Carrion

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Considerations of the Work of James Carrion

Considerations of the Work of James Carrion


Jack Brewer By Jack Brewer
The UFO Trail
10-3-14

     James Carrion is a writer, researcher and former intelligence analyst. No stranger to the UFO phenomenon, for a while he occupied the hot seat at the Mutual UFO Network. In his latest blog post, he identified what he termed "the smoking gun" of an intelligence operation theorized in his book, 'The Rosetta Deception', available for free on Carrion's blog site of the same name. He recently launched the Rosetta Deception Forum, a message board where you can post questions, discuss the book and share related research.

Ghost Rocket
Possible "ghost rocket" depicted in a photo widely circulated and originally released by Swedish Army, according to Wikipedia
'The Rosetta Deception' contains a substantial amount of cited research focusing upon parts of 1946 and 1947. A series of well sourced events and circumstances are presented that suggest the "ghost rocket" reported sightings over Europe were the results of a U.S.-led deception operation. I suspect Carrion's interpretation is extremely likely to be accurate.

Carrion suggested in his book that motives for the operation included building global distrust for the Soviet Union while the world was speculating who was testing missiles over Europe. The primary objective, however, may have been to crack the Russian diplomatic code. This would have been accomplished in part through a method known as gardening, which involves creating circumstances of interest to enemy spies so that specific key words can be expected to be prevalent in coded messages, thus increasing opportunities to break the code. More complete understandings and context can be gained by taking other relevant circumstances of the era into account, many of which are specifically presented and sourced in the book.

In his latest blog post, Carrion outlined some particular points of his theory and added what he referred to as the smoking gun: A 1946 NYC-initiated strike of communications employees which significantly decreased available methods for Soviet intelligence agents located in the States to send messages safely to Moscow. Carrion reports that a resulting bottleneck of information flow created optimum conditions for American agents to gain access to encrypted Soviet messages. There are specific circumstances presented in 'The Rosetta Deception' in support of the likelihood, including the established and substantial presence at the time of the U.S. allied intelligence community in Stateside media and communications corporations, the very outfits which would have been relied upon.

Those who wish to debate Carrion's perspectives on the ghost rockets were invited to do so. Read more about his challenge, including definitions of standards of evidence and the requirement that an actual theory must be put forth, in his related blog post.

Objectives of Deception

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to accurately understanding intelligence operations, and particularly those that overlap with the UFO community, would be the failure to consider there is no all inclusive explanation. There is more than one reason the IC manipulated circumstances commonly perceived as related to UFOs. The purposes and objectives change from one specific circumstance to the next and cannot be discussed effectively in an overly generalized manner. Particular eras and specific cases should be considered independently of one another.

Consider, for example, a now declassified 1954 CIA memo in which agents were instructed to contemplate fabricating a sensational UFO story. The purpose of the potential fabrication was not in and of itself to deceive the public. The objective, according to the memo, was to divert public attention from Agency involvement in a Guatemalan coup.

If we neglect to seek such documents, we fail ourselves as researchers. We also fail as interested members of the public searching for accurate information.

If we perpetually subscribe to extreme beliefs, to either side of center, we increase the likelihood we are missing important data. That would be the case in arguing the IC was never involved in ufology, as well as limiting our perspectives to the incorrect assumptions that the only objectives must have involved either covering up an alien presence or the polar opposite of deceiving the public into believing aliens are among us. As Carrion suggests in his work and the 1954 CIA memo demonstrates, there are many potential objectives for UFO-related deception operations. Their intricacy would be par for the course, not the exception to the rule.

It appears to this writer that UFO-related deception operations conducted by the IC are reasonably a given. Their extents, specific circumstances and objectives are yet to be conclusively determined - not their existence.

It is important to understand that we must demand verifiable information in order to draw conclusions. Such conclusions cannot be found in passionate opinions or baseless arguments that go in circles but never reach resolution as is all too often the case within ufology.

We Have Seen the Enemy...

It has been said that propaganda is sometimes aimed at the media with the ultimate intention of influencing politicians and global leaders. If taken from that perspective, confused and misinformed members of the public might be viewed as little more than relatively inconsequential byproducts of some deception operations, at least to the powers that be.

Another way of looking at that would be to consider the IC may not be as responsible for the runaway beliefs attached to UFOs as much as the UFO community sometimes took a nudge and did the rest largely on its own. Among our biggest challenges as a community in search of accurate answers continues to be ourselves, or at least a segment of our community.

There is a leading segment of the UFO community that chronically seeks to perpetuate mysteries rather than solve them. They seek no prosaic explanations, and scrupulously avert from them at virtually all costs to logic and rationality.

Some of the mysteries that find their ways into UFO circles may indeed one day prove to be groundbreaking and of great interest. The vast majority will most certainly not.

It was not the IC that single handedly turned the "ghost rockets" into a supposedly alien-related cultural phenomenon that became perpetuated for over half a century. Neither was a Pentagon think tank solely responsible for such a large number of questionable UFO stories evolving into never ending sagas of mythical proportion. We did that on our own.

I recommend checking out the work of James Carrion. I think it is worth the time and attention. He operates the blogs 'The Rosetta Deception' and 'Follow the Magic Thread'. Join and participate at his recently launched message board at Rosetta Deception Forum.

Saturday, August 03, 2013

MUFON, Science and Deception


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Definition of Science

By Jack Brewer
The UFO Trail
7-30-13

pt 1

      The Mutual UFO Network recently announced its latest change in executive directors. David “The Captain” MacDonald is vacating the position to be filled August 1 by Jan Harzan, a longtime member of the MUFON board of directors. Offered is a two-part post exploring recent MUFON history and circumstances, including comments provided by scientists, UFO investigators and MUFON members, both past and present.

The French Connection

Alejandro Rojas reported the MUFON leadership change in an article published July 23. The article also stated there was a “partnership” between MUFON and GEIPAN, a French organization dedicated to investigating aerial phenomena.

According to its website, GEIPAN consists of two full-time staff: a manager and an assistant. The small agency is funded by The National Center for Space Studies (CNES) and depends on external support for such resources as investigations and monitoring cases.

“National Defense operates at several levels in the operation of GEIPAN,” the site states, including representatives from the French Air Force, National Gendarmerie and National Police who act as consultants and sit on steering committees. Details of the relationship between MUFON and GEIPAN are unclear, as are the nature of specific talks conducted, proposed activities and methods of measuring success.

Four Executive Directors Since 2009

James Carrion was the designated leader of MUFON from 2006 until 2009, at which time he left in a storm of turmoil. A great deal of the controversy surrounded an unsteady alliance between MUFON and Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. Mr. Carrion accused members of the MUFON board of directors of several questionable actions, including enabling Mr. Bigelow to move funds and act on behalf of undisclosed financial sponsors. Many of the issues raised at the time remain unexplained. . . .