Elizondo's 'Imminent' Stands Alone

“Senior officials told me continuously and confidentially that big aerospace companies have been part of the Legacy Program to retrieve and reverse-engineer crash materials ..."

“Well, I got a couple of thousand damn questions, you know? I want to speak to someone in charge. I want to lodge a complaint. You have no right to make people crazy. . . What the hell is going on around here? Who the hell ARE you people?” — from “CE-III” Since Lue Elizondo’s just-released memoir is already a New York Times No. 1 bestseller, it’s easy to imagine the big-screen treatment opening with a replay of a closing scene from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

By Billy Cox lifeinjonestown

The little alien is greeting Earthlings with Curwen hand gestures that groove to the movie’s five-note tonal signature. ET’s huge eyes glisten with emotion, and his/her/its facial expression lays it on thick with beatific awe. The camera pulls away as human volunteers suit up and file aboard for the ride of a lifetime.

Before the grand finale, however, the fairy tale ending jumps the rails. The film stutters, then shrivels amid white-orange heat, and cuts to a nightmare unfolding in Colares, Brazil. The small coastal village and surrounding locales are under assault by UFOs, of all shapes and sizes, orbs, discs, cylinders, you name it, triangles. Disembodied lights chase residents inside their own homes. The afflicted break out in blisters and rashes; others endure nausea, blinding headaches, puncture wounds, abduction, temporary paralysis, catatonia.

Government investigators descend on the region to document the chaos, compiling as many as 3,500 case files. By one estimate, the incidents leave 300 animals dead, dozens of victims with chronic illnesses, and claim the lives of 10 Brazilians. Authorities are at a loss to identify the aggressors or their motives, and no one is held accountable.

In 1977, as “Close Encounters” was thrilling the global village in theaters, this real-life flip side of Steven Spielberg’s space-brothers fantasy was happening simultaneously, under the radar, in South America. But the repercussions from those events hadn’t been fully realized until last week’s publication of Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs.

Anticipated in growing circles with the fervor of a Harry Potter book-drop, Imminent fills in some of the blanks on the secret Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which the NY Times parlayed into a groundbreaking expose in 2017. But as the handiwork of censors’ pens at the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review indicates, there’s more to the story than we’re allowed to know.

In this latest installment on the Pentagon’s twisted relationship with infinitely advanced nonhuman technology, former counterintelligence agent and AATIP director Lue Elizondo goes big from the outset.

More than 30 years have passed since “Close Encounters,” and in 2009, Elizondo gets recruited by U.S. Strategic Command intelligence officer Jay Stratton for an opaque assignment. A former Army combat veteran with counterintelligence experience in “locking down” classified defense technology from foreign spies, Elizondo will create a secure space for a mysterious project called the Advanced Weapons System Application Program (AAWSAP). But it falls to a senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst named James Lacatski to read him in on it.

For two years AAWSAP sponsored a secret UFO study set for termination in 2010 by squeamish higher-ups at the Pentagon. Undeterred, Stratton and Lacatski, a rocket scientist, hatched a successor called AATIP. It would be funded by resources under the broad umbrella of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, or ISR. Keeping it alive would require discretion and finesse.

Elizondo signs on, but he doesn’t get the full monty until attending an informal private dinner meeting off-site. Guests include remote-viewing pioneer physicist Hal Puthoff, hotel tycoon/aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow (the prime contractor leading AAWSAP’s UFO investigation) and Brazilian Gen. Paulo Roberto Yog de Miranda Uchoa.

And that’s when Elizondo learns about the hair-raising scenes from Colares in the 1970s.

This is the stage-setter for Elizondo’s immersion into the wild-ass behavioral range of the phenomenon. What begins as a catch-up course into the military’s long dyspeptic history with the UFO/UAP enigma rachets into a full-spectrum assessment of the challenge it poses not only to national security, but for the human race at large.

And those blue-chip suspects . . .

Elizondo’s work with AATIP soon puts him on the scent of even more deeply concealed UFO projects. And these “Legacy Programs,” he charges, have been working the problem for generations, beginning with the Roswell crash in 1947.

“Senior officials told me continuously and confidentially that big aerospace companies have been part of the Legacy Program to retrieve and reverse-engineer crash materials,” he writes. “The big names included Lockheed Martin, TRW, McDonnell Douglas, Northrup Grumman, Boeing, Raytheon, BAE Systems, and the Aerospace Corporation, all of which have been principal members of the US military-industrial complex. I was also told that Monsanto, a biotechnology corporation absorbed by Bayer in 2018, may have historically been involved, most likely dealing with biological specimens.”

Retired DIA program manager Lacatski himself has independently contributed considerable detail to the back story. He co-authored Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders’ Account of the Secret Government UFO Program in 2021, and in 2023’s Inside the U.S. Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations, he claimed to have personally “gained access” to the interior of a recovered craft. But Lacatski stepped up only after Elizondo left the reservation seven years ago and made history with the NY Times.

Operating quietly for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (OUSD(I)), AATIP’s collective blood ran cold during a presentation by physicist Puthoff, whose intelligence work for the Pentagon spans decades. Working the math on a whiteboard, the CEO of EarthTech International unveiled a formula for UFO propulsion that operates entirely within the laws of general relativity. By using high energy to compress space into a “warp bubble” that can be wrapped around an object, said object can move freely without being encumbered by gravity, light speed, the environment, etc.

“It is no longer a theoretical challenge,” Puthoff informed his small audience. “It is now a technological challenge.”

Recalls Elizondo: “The voices in the SCIF went silent — and stayed silent.”

If in fact physics is on the brink of a technological breakthrough, nobody has a monopoly on the math. Given the murderous history of our species, engineering that math into weapons platforms would be the first order of business. In that event, a level playing field would obviously threaten technologically superior observers keeping tabs on our progress. A threat of that nature would lend more coherence to their motivations; government files, after all, are crammed with reports of UFO interactions with military assets, from drones to nukes to jet fighters to aircraft carriers to restricted infrastructure.

How might “they” respond if we cross that threshold?

Dispensing with ‘compromised individuals’

“The worst-case scenario for us is that they’re bad,” Elizondo writes. “If they’re bad, they could be conducting what the military calls an IBP operation – initial preparation of the battlefield.”

Stratton proposes a “honey pot” experiment, dubbed Operation Interloper, to acquire more data that might ultimately expose their vulnerabilities. The bait would be a nuclear-powered strike group – carriers, destroyers, subs, many of them with histories of UFO interactions – dispatched on maneuvers in the Atlantic. The fleet would be armed to the teeth with the latest innovations in sensor technology; given UFOs’ patterns for operating above and below oceans, the ambush stands to reap a windfall of knowledge.

With OUSD(I) “infested with compromised individuals,” according to Imminent, Stratton and Elizondo decide to circumvent the chain of command and run the Interloper proposal straight up to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The inevitable brick wall dashes those aspirations at the end of 2016, when JCS rejects the idea. “Where I saw a bold initiative to make sense of what our servicemen and -women witnessed in the skies,” Elizondo writes, “leadership saw a great bucket of weirdness that was not within their usual daily list of tasks.”

What follows is a masterclass on the art of legal subterfuge.

Hoping to pre-empt catastrophic communications failures that preceded Pearl Harbor and 9/11, Elizondo in Imminent describes AATIP’s plan for the official verification and release of the Navy’s now-iconic Tic Tac, GoFast, and Gimbal videos. There’s a critical assist from rainmaker and former Deputy Assistant SecDef for Intelligence Christoper Mellon. Then comes an unlikely private platform from rock star Tom DeLonge, called To The Stars Academy, which enables a public discussion. It culminates in a media strategy to unclog the bureaucratic stovepipes, if only briefly.

The payoff results in unprecedented — and continuing — congressional legislation to excavate the truth behind the coverup. The fate of those endeavors, however, is pending.

Pulling the trigger by taking it to the press is also a kamikaze move that requires a proactive resignation from a career Elizondo loved. Imminent details its aftermath, the professional retaliation, its impact on his family, and the loss of income that has led to a still unsettled lifestyle. As for the “great bucket of weirdness” the DoD leadership so rigidly shrugs off? It continues to slosh over the edges, with or without Pentagon approval.

In a 2022 analysis for the EdgeScience journal, microbiologist and chemist Colm Kelleher – who co-authored Lacatski’s two books – wrote of a “hitchhiker effect” that can sometimes rattle paranormal researchers. He classifies the consequences for many of those who studied UFOs and related oddities at Bigelow’s “Skinwalker Ranch” in Utah as “profoundly altered perceptual environments.” But the particulars read more like notes from John Carpenter’s scratchpad:

“Nightmarish dogmen,” “black shadow people standing over their beds,” “orbs routinely floating through their homes,” and an “inferno of unexplained phenomena.” Furthermore, Kelleher wrote, all five DIA investigators who pursued anomalies out west reported experiencing spectral pop-ups long after they completed their field work. Some families and neighbors of the researchers also talked of seeing apparitions, a development Kelleher likened to a social contagion.

When the fairy tales end

Once he committed to joining AATIP, the Imminent author wasn’t spared either. Soft green, basketball-sized orbs began materializing in the hallways of his home and disappearing through walls. Elizondo’s wife and kids saw them as well.

“Was this some sort of adversarial technology being used to conduct surveillance against my family and me? Or worse,” he writes, “was this all part of the UAP issue? Maybe another more advanced intelligence was looking into me and my colleagues because they knew we were looking into them?”

Imminent thus becomes the latest addition to an immense and expanding UFO corpus, but it is arguably its most exceptional. In the foreword, Mellon characterizes Elizondo as “a singular individual whose intrepid actions changed the course of history.”

“Absent Lue’s persistence and courage,” he continues, “the US government would still be denying the existence of UAP and failing to investigate a phenomenon that may well prove to be the greatest discovery in history.”

Time will decide that – just as it may reveal whether the terror in Colares was an outlier or an indicator of more authentic intention by an Other we want to believe is benevolent or, at worst, apathetic. We are a dangerously insecure species addicted to fairy tales. But as Imminent makes clear, we are also in dire need of leaders with enough guts to tell us when they’re over.

VISIT BILLY'S WEBSITE ►

See Also:

	Pentagon Utilized UFOs and Nukes Data Collected by R. Hastings
	Former Pentagon Official Talks UFO 'Occupancy' and 'Biological Samples'
	Former Pentagon UFO Official To Reveal Shocking Never-Before-Shared Details

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Caught Between Area 51 and a Gaslighting Billionaire

The term gaslighting means to manipulate someone by psychological means so they question their own sanity. Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse for the purpose of control. Not just the individual but also the masses can be gaslit into believing that which is blatantly red, is white, or what is down is up, or what is plainly observed - never happened. This is not a possible Orwellian dystopian future – it is happening now. We live in a world of “alternative” facts, where truth itself has become subjective, forcing us to constantly ask ourselves - is

By James Carrion The UFO Chronicles 8-2-22

this real or does someone want us to believe it is real? Between foreign adversaries pushing disinformation on social media or domestic politicians manufacturing culture wars, or the entertainment media constantly feeding us fiction as fact; we find ourselves in the fight of our lives – not a physical brawl – but an all-out information warfare throw-down.

Each of these manipulators has an agenda for terraforming our reality. Adversaries and politicians seek to divide us, and the media companies look to reap mass viewership. But what if the manipulator is our own National Security apparatus and the manipulation is in the name of “freedom”? We can look at similar abuses in the past to understand that the ends don’t always justify the means. The Church Committee final report established that “Intelligence agencies have undermined the constitutional rights of citizens, primarily because checks and balances designed by the framers of the Constitution to assure accountability have not been applied.”

One example of such abuse is the very sad story of Paul Bennewitz, who was manipulated by Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) agent Richard Doty and UFO researcher William Moore into believing something about UFOs that was not real, contributing to Bennewitz’s mental breakdown. In Doty’s case, this was allegedly done in the name of National Security, and in Moore’s case, allegedly in the name of cultivating inside UFO sources. You can read all about it in Greg Bishop’s book: Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth

But have you heard about the sad manipulation tale of Joseph Junior Hicks?

Junior was the co-author along with Dr. Frank Salisbury of The Utah UFO Display, a book that documented the numerous UFO sightings in Utah’s Uintah basin. A Jr./High School science teacher for 33 years, primarily teaching the local Ute tribe children, Junior began collecting close-encounter UFO stories from the local community where he had lived all his life. A confidant who never ridiculed anyone, Junior faithfully recorded, without judgement, what Uintah basin citizens recounted of their encounters with the other worldly.

I met Junior Hicks in 2009 when visiting the Uintah basin, at the invitation of Dr. Salisbury who was updating his co-authored book, and together we visited the neighbors that bordered the Skinwalker Ranch (SWR). This, after Billionaire Robert Bigelow, the then SWR owner, refused our request to visit the ranch itself. Those precious days spent with Dr. Salisbury and Junior had an enormous impact on me and directly led me to break ties with both Bigelow and MUFON over what I perceived to be manufactured manipulations of the UFO subculture. I wrote about my decision and reasoning in 2011 in this blog post Hunting the Skinwalker: Note that as Junior had told me in confidence, I did not reveal his name and called him “Brad” in the 2011 post.

At that time, Junior told me about his work on SWR, but what really piqued my interest was him recounting that after a cow was mutilated on the SWR property, strange metal rods were found nearby. Junior said that he was told by a NIDs scientist who happened to work at Area 51 (pay attention as this will be important later) that the rods were made of Element 115. If you are asking yourself, what is Element 115, then Google the Bob Lazar story and the bogus claims he made of allegedly working at S-4 (Area 51) and tales of reversed-engineered alien spacecraft. You can also read about it on this blog post I posted back in 2020:

But it was only after getting into a “who’s really telling the truth” contest with current SWR owner Brandon Fugal as told here that I began to fear that Fugal was trying to whitewash the SWR with a revisionist paranormal “forever” history.

Perhaps, in Fugal’s case, telling an unsubstantiated tale that SWR is “special” in the Uintah basin would justify for paid subscribers their access to the paywall/merchandise-hawking “Skinwalker Ranch Insider” site. Fortunately, the paywall has a free 7-day trial and so I subscribed to access the “exclusive” content that a “transparency” loving multimillionaire, for some reason just can’t make available free of charge.

On the site are seven video interviews with Junior Hicks from the year before he passed away on June 7, 2020, at the age of 92. I found two things enlightening about these video interviews. First, Junior discussed his interactions with former SWR owners Terry and Gwen Sherman and Robert Bigelow and present owner Fugal but did not once talk about any interactions with the Myers family who leased/owned SWR from 1934-1994.

Let’s put this first point into context. Junior lived his whole life in the Uintah basin, having been born in Cedarview, Utah on June 19, 1927. He was the UFO guy of the basin, the go-to confidant for anyone who had a UFO tale to tell. Junior collected over 400 close encounter cases during his decades in the Uintah basin, but somehow the X that marked the spot of paranormal central which the revisionists want you to believe is Skinwalker ranch is not the focus of his co-authored book. Junior’s time on the ranch can be only traced back to when after the Shermans bought it.

So, Fugal’s charm offensive at trying to prove a “decades” long paranormal history of the ranch fizzles because it simply can’t be substantiated, at least not by the guy who would know best – Junior Hicks. But that’s not even the focus of this story.

Second, Junior provided much more detail on the metal rods than he revealed in 2009. Let’s get back to Element 115 and why that is important.

When Junior told me the story in 2009, he called the scientist who gave him this information, a “NIDS scientist who worked at Area 51”. The video interviews elaborate:

The Rods:

As Junior recounted in the interview, the Shermans were raising hybrid cows on SWR. Terry Sherman asked Junior to come out one day to investigate a recent cattle mutilation on the ranch. Junior brought his daughter along on the mute investigation.

Before arriving at the ranch, Junior received a phone call from a scientist out at area 51, who told Junior of some of the things happening at the ranch and that there could be a portal that could open in the ground, warning Junior to be careful. The scientist told Junior to bring a compass along and to monitor the compass. If the compass needle froze in place, Junior needed to leave quickly because something was about to happen that would cause him harm and if it occurred where he was standing, he may not come back.

Junior examined the mute, and on his way back to the truck, the compass needle started rotating around and then stopped and got stuck. Junior told his daughter to run to the truck.

Later, Terry Sherman, when examining the mute, found a 6 inch long, 1 inch diameter metal rod on the ground that was heavy, and he put in his pocket. Junior returned to SWR the next day and Terry showed Junior the rod. Terry tried to whittle the rod with his pocketknife to no avail and tried to hit it with a hammer but all it did was nick the hammer and the anvil. Terry heated the rod with a torch, and after taking the torch away, the rod would become cold again. Terry called Bigelow and Bigelow flew out on his private plane. There were three scientists there at the same time and Bigelow took the rod to be analyzed.

Bigelow came back after a few days and Junior asked if the rod had been analyzed. Bigelow responded that it was a part from an old-fashioned battery. Junior told Bigelow he didn’t believe that because a battery part could be whittled. Bigelow responded that he didn’t want people to get excited about it (apparently to explain why he lied).

Then Bigelow lined up all the scientists in a line on their hands and knees, to crawl across the pasture to see what else they could find in the direction of the mute. Five more rods were found in the search, with three of them shorter than the rest (about 3 inches long and the diameter of a pencil).

Junior later asked Bigelow if these newly found rods had been analyzed and Bigelow said they were parts from an old searchlight used during WW2 to spot aircraft. Junior just happened to have a friend that had one of these old spotlights and he confirmed it could not have come from that. Junior went back to Bigelow and said that’s not the answer. Bigelow said we will have it analyzed for sure, but we don’t want a lot of people to know about it.

In the meantime, Junior got another call from the Area 51 scientist who told Junior that the rod that had been found was called Element 115 and that it was the power source for the UFOs.

Bigelow wanted to borrow Junior’s case files and compare them to cases from the ranch. Bigelow picked out 30 that he thought were like NID’s files. Junior thought Bigelow was covering up what was going on at the ranch and he (Bigelow) didn’t want anyone else to see what was going on. Junior also said he thought that the scientist at area 51 knew more perhaps than Bigelow did.

Every time Bigelow came to the ranch from Las Vegas, he would take Junior to dinner to discuss the ranch. Junior told Bigelow the rods were element 115 and powered the craft and when they were depleted of their power, they were ejected from the craft. Bigelow was skeptical and said he didn’t know anything about that. The rods then disappeared but Terry Sherman had taken a picture of the first rod and Junior still had the photo.

Bigelow told Junior that he had positive proof that there was an underground base under the ranch, but the base was now abandoned. What is left is just paranormal activity in the absence of the UFO drivers. Junior believes the paranormal and the UFOs are connected. Junior himself hadn’t witnessed himself much at all. Junior also said he had never signed an NDA.

Gaslight Pilot

So here is what I find intriguing in Junior’s video interviews. First, that Junior had an alleged inside source at Area 51 who was feeding him information about the ranch. Information that Junior would then relay to Bigelow. Yet, in 2009 he called this source a “NIDS scientist” who happened to work at Area 51. So, I was surprised to learn that Junior considered this unnamed scientist to be independent of Bigelow and who allegedly knew more than Bigelow about what was going on.

Second, Bigelow can’t stop gaslighting Junior on the rods. First, they are a car battery part, then parts from an old WW2 searchlight, then they disappear altogether. Meanwhile the alleged NID’s/Area 51 scientist is telling Junior exactly what they are – a non-existent at the time Element 115. To add psychological insult to injury, Bigelow then tells Junior about the definitive underground alien base under the ranch.

Third, much to my surprise, Junior had not signed an NDA. I would venture probably the only person ever to be affiliated with Bigelow not to have signed one. So, when Junior told me in 2009 in confidence about the NIDS scientist and Element 115, I assumed he was doing so because he was under NDA, but it turned out he was not. Evidently, Bigelow did not mind at all who Junior was talking to.

What kind of game was being played here?

Whatever the “play” was, it appears that the thrust of it was to convince Junior of the bogus Bob Lazar story as having some basis in fact. Whether to simply add on to the UFO folklore pile or as part of a counter-intelligence campaign to obfuscate the real down-to-earth high-tech aircraft that Area 51 was harboring, the alien mythology of both Area 51 and SWR were being shoved down Junior’s throat in a good-cop (the transparent Area 51 scientist) / bad cop (gaslighting, secretive, concealing Bigelow) back and forth, aimed at manipulating Junior’s beliefs in the process.

So, in the end, how did this affect Joseph Junior Hicks? Unlike Paul Bennewitz who already suffered from a mental illness that Doty/Moore helped nudge over the edge, Junior was too centered, honest and sure of himself to cause any real psychological damage. But the intent was to manipulate his beliefs and from that perspective it succeeded - an abuse perpetrated on an honest American.

And therein lies the problem. How many thousands of Joseph Junior Hicks have had their beliefs similarly psychologically manipulated in the process by forces who believe the ends justify the means? These are the central questions that must be honestly examined and answered by the UFO fact-finding mission that Congress suddenly finds itself on. A reckoning is long overdue.

VISIT JAMES BLOG ►

See Also:

	Goodbye Ufology, Hello Truth
	UFOs: Distinguishing Fact from Opinion
	UFO Perceptions

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Skinwalker Ranch, UFOs, and Life After Death

Las Vegas space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow announced the creation of a new project, the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies, which hopes to stimulate new research into the survival of human consciousness beyond death.

By George Knapp Mystery Wire 1-21-21

In an exclusive on camera interview, Bigelow shared with us the personal experiences–and losses—that prompted his interest in life after death, as well as UFOs.

[...]



Continue Reading ►

See Also:

	Billionaire Robert Bigelow's Decades-Long Obsession With UFOs
	Billionaire Robert Bigelow: “I’ve Been a Researcher and Student of UFO’s for Many, Many Years"
	Space Pioneer & Billionaire, Robert Bigelow Talks UFOs & Aliens on 60 Minutes

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

The New Owner of 'Skinwalker Ranch' Steps Forward – He's No Stranger to Weird Stuff

A secretive company called Adamantium Real Estate bought the supposedly haunted "Skinwalker Ranch" from Robert Bigelow in 2016. The company was named for a fictional metal alloy in Marvel comic books that was indestructible, and nobody knew who was hiding behind that impenetrable corporate shell. Well, now we know. His name is Brandon Fugal, and (as might be expected), he is no stranger to weird things and weird claims.

By Robert Sheaffer Bad UFOs 3-13-20

Fugal steps forward in an interview just published in Vice by M. J. Banias, "This Is the Real Estate Magnate Who Bought Skinwalker Ranch, a UFO Hotspot." Cynics suggest that Fugal revealed himself only because of the forthcoming series "The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch" on the "History" Channel on March 31, and wanted to take full advantage of that publicity.

Fugal's bio from the website of the Ancient Historical Research Foundation

We read in Banias' article,

Fugal’s journey to Skinwalker Ranch began in 2010. He and several other investors launched a project focused on testing gravitational physics theories involving exotic propulsion and renewable energy. In really simple terms, it was an attempt to create a gravitational reduction device that could produce clean energy. Fugal admits it was a shot in the dark.

“It was a challenging time. Admittedly, we were all governed by this childlike wonder. We were filled with excitement and gut-wrenching frustration at every turn,” Fugal said.

Joe Firmage with his Anti-Gravity device (from his video)

Do you care to hazard a guess who it might be that Fugal teamed up with in that dubious undertaking? Here is a hint: Who else lives in Utah, and is trying to build an anti-gravity device? That's easy: Joe Firmage. I wrote about this last year. That ill-considered venture has now resulted in the "Anti-Gravity Lawsuit" that TV producer Robert Kiviat has filed against Firmage and some of his associates, alleging that he didn't get paid for his work on their anti-gravity systems. Brandon Fugal is mixed up in that Anti-Gravity lawsuit, and will be called to testify.

Banias asked Fugal, "People have speculated that you are trying to develop a ‘paranormal retreat’ or a tourist destination." His reply:

Really? That isn’t going to happen. The ranch isn’t some place for ghost hunters to get their jollies. It's a serious scientific endeavor that requires patience and humility, and I have committed significant resources dedicated to discovering the truth of what is really happening. What a silly idea.

There is zero intention to monetize it in any way, although we do have traditional ranching activities such as raising cattle.

Fugal's answer doesn't seem to mesh with the Trademark filing he made for "Skinwalker Ranch," which lists the purpose of the venture as "Providing recreation facilities; Arranging and conducting special events for social entertainment purposes; Entertainment..." Hmmmm.

As researcher Tom Mellett has noted, Fugal is listed as a director of the Ancient Historical Research Foundation, an organization dedicated to investigating dubious claims about the "hidden history" of ancient civilizations that are described in the Book of Mormon. Another director of that organization is the physicist Dr. Steven Jones, well known as a "9-11 Truther," who suggests that the WTC buildings were destroyed in a controlled demolition.

A recent lecture sponsored by the Ancient Historical Research Foundation told how "Sixty years ago in Central Utah, John Brewer discoverd a cave of stone boxes, ancient records and giant mummies."

[UPDATE March 13: Brandon Fugal now says that his association with AHRF ended in 2005, although that website still listed him as a Director until a few days ago. He also says that he does not believe that 'anomalous archaeology' stuff.]

Brandon Fugal was a Director of the Ancient Historical Research Foundation, which researches "Giant Mummies" and stuff like that..

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

Identity of Real Estate Magnate Who Bought The Skinwalker Ranch Revealed

The Mythology of Skinwalker Ranch

SKINWALKER RANCH: Original Owner/Family Member Sets The Record Straight

History Channel's, The Secret of The Skinwalker Ranch Reviewed

What is Really Happening at the Skinwalker Ranch?

Army Colonel Reveals Amazing Skinwalker Ranch Stories | VIDEO

Alien Ranch Up For Sale

Hunt for the Skinwalker & The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Connection

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Identity of Real Estate Magnate Who Bought The Skinwalker Ranch Revealed

Brandon Fugal bought the infamous Utah ranch
from aerospace billionaire Robert Bigelow in 2016

The person who owns the infamous Skinwalker Ranch, a supposedly haunted UFO hotspot in Utah, has decided to come out of the shadows. [...]

By MJ Banias Vice 3-10-20

“You can ask me anything, and I’ll tell you the truth,” he said, turning away from the window. He sat down at a long table. I immediately asked him the question I had been waiting to ask since I boarded my flight to Utah.

“Why the hell did you buy Skinwalker Ranch? Are you crazy?” I asked.

[...]

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

The Mythology of Skinwalker Ranch

SKINWALKER RANCH: Original Owner/Family Member Sets The Record Straight

History Channel's, The Secret of The Skinwalker Ranch Reviewed

What is Really Happening at the Skinwalker Ranch?

Army Colonel Reveals Amazing Skinwalker Ranch Stories | VIDEO

Alien Ranch Up For Sale

Hunt for the Skinwalker & The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Connection

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

The Mythology of Skinwalker Ranch

Wag the UFO

It is a damn shame that the sensational always drowns out common sense in this world. If you have any doubt that is true, then you haven’t been paying attention. How else do you think a reality TV star with zero political experience and a lifetime trail of criminality and corruption but with the gift for razzle and dazzle became President of the United States? Seducing the masses is a fine art. The same holds true for the world of the Paranormal including UFOs. The more sensational the claim, the more likely it is to be embraced by the general public who have an insatiable

By James Carrion historydeceived.blogspot.com 2-21-20

appetite for the macabre, the bizarre and the strange. Once a UFO well runs dry however (hint: Roswell), then a new rabbit hole is dug by charlatans and perpetuators. Sometimes the UFO rabbit holes are dug by our own intelligence agencies who have for decades involved themselves in the business of UFOs for any number of mundane reasons – from foreign counterintelligence concerns to black project obfuscation.

Occasionally, however, a UFO rabbit hole is dug that is so ostentatious in its myth building that it spawns a whole cottage industry including wasting of millions of taxpayer dollars. One such rabbit hole is the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah’s Uintah basin.

If you can just for a moment ignore the sensational claims that have been pandered in George Knapp and Colm Kelleher’s book Hunt for the Skinwalker and spend the time examining the red flags that have popped up surrounding this fairy tale, hopefully critical thinking will win out over your appetite to be entertained.

So let’s start with three major red flags that gets lost in all of the noise about DIA funded UFO research, newfound Navy interest in the subject, conflicting DOD statements, and To The Stars shenanigans.

Red Flag 1). The Myth of a Long UFO/Paranormal History of the Skinwalker Ranch

Get yourself a copy of the revised edition of Dr. Frank Salisbury’s book Utah UFO Display, copyright 2010 and focus on pages 218-226. Here you will find an alternative interpretation of reality then the sensational Knapp/Kelleher fairy tale.

You see, Dr. Salisbury in 2009 was able to interview Garth Myers, the brother of the original owner of the ranch, who just happened to live nearby Salisbury’s home in Salt Lake City. Garth Myers' brother Kenneth Myers and Kenneth’s wife Edith Childs purchased the ranch in 1933. Kenneth died in 1987 and Edith continued to live on the ranch until she left for a rest home. When Edith died in March, 1994, the ranch reverted to Garth Myers and his sisters, Helen M. Baxter and LaPriel Poulson. Garth was the executor of the estate and sold the ranch some three month later in mid-1994 to Terry and Gwen Sherman.

Garth vigorously denied that there was any UFO activity or otherworldly events occurring on the ranch while his brother and sister in law lived there and before it was sold to the Shermans, some sixty plus years of zero high strangeness. But here comes the kicker. Soon after Robert Bigelow bought the ranch in 1996 from the Shermans, Bigelow called Garth Myers and asked Garth why he never told anyone about the UFO’s on the ranch. Myers responded – that’s because the UFOs didn’t show up till the Shermans bought it. Bigelow’s response? “Oh, you’re not telling me the truth.”

So, stop for a second and ponder the strange scene I just described as recounted by Garth Myers to Dr. Frank Salisbury. Why was billionaire Bigelow attempting to bully Garth Myers who sold the ranch to the Shermans into admitting high strangeness activity on the ranch that had no basis in reality? Wag the UFO.

Red Flag 2).  The Bob Lazar Tie-In to the Skinwalker Ranch

Junior Hicks who coauthored the Utah UFO Display had his own interesting story to tell Dr. Salisbury and me when we interviewed him in 2009. Hicks mentioned that one day he arrived on the ranch during the time when Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Sciences (NIDS) group was there allegedly conducting research. Some strange metal rods had been found on the ranch after a recent UFO sighting and one of the NIDS' scientists told Hicks that they had the metal rods analyzed, and lo and behold, they were made of Element 115. Cue the sirens and flashing lights! Element 115 is the core component of another deep UFO rabbit hole that has spawned its own mythology – the Bob Lazar story.

[...]

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

SKINWALKER RANCH: Original Owner/Family Member Sets The Record Straight

History Channel's, The Secret of The Skinwalker Ranch Reviewed

What is Really Happening at the Skinwalker Ranch?

Army Colonel Reveals Amazing Skinwalker Ranch Stories | VIDEO

Alien Ranch Up For Sale

Hunt for the Skinwalker & The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Connection

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Breaking the Silence: AATIP's Secret Partner Speaks

Conspiracy theory and Conspiracy theorist. Those terms have become tactical labels used to portray opponents as tinfoil hat-wearing crackpots. This is the story of one UFO conspiracy theory, involving the US government and federal funding, that has been proven to be true. When the AATIP story broke in 2017, it put the neglected UFO topic back on the front pages. Unfortunately, within it, the AATIP story also

By Roger Glassel & Curt Collins www.blueblurrylines.com 3-23-20

contained one of ufology’s worst scandals or fiascos in recent history, and it confirmed the rumors of the US government’s involvement in civilian UFO research. Not only was this conspiracy theory real, it involved the US Congress, the Department of Defense, and billionaire Robert Bigelow, a NASA contractor.

There’s a lot to unpack, so the story and information is broken into the following sections:

1). A Glossary of Abbreviations

2). Recap of our Previous Article

3). AAWSAP or AATIP, “Mostly Just One Guy?”

4). What’s So Bad About Taking a Little Government Money?

5). Additional Data: MUFON UFO Reports Sent to BAASS

6). The Devil’s Advocate: Possibly Misunderstood, Not Sinister?

7). Public Statements by Bigelow, Elizondo, & Harzan on the BAASS-MUFON Era

8). MUFON’s Response to Questions about the Bigelow Contracts

9). An Interview with James Carrion

10). Picking up the Scent: The FAA and the UFO Hotline

11). The Legacy of Elaine Douglass

12). On The UFO Trail of Robert Bigelow

13). Dissident UFO Buffs

14). Sources, Resources, and Further Details on BAASS and MUFON’s SIP (Revised)

In our previous article, The Pentagon UFO Program’s Secret Partner, we revealed a previously hidden chapter of the AATIP story. For those who need a glossary for the alphabet soup involved:

• AATIP: Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program

• AAWSAP: Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Applications Program

• BAASS: Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (owned by Robert Bigelow)

• CMS: MUFON’s web-based Case Management System, a UFO report database.

• DIA: United States Defense Intelligence Agency

• DoD: United States Department of Defense

• FAA: Federal Aviation Administration

• MATE: MUFON Advanced Technology Establishment

• MUFON: Mutual UFO Network (largest civilian UFO group in the USA)

• NIDS: National Institute for Discovery Science (owned by Robert Bigelow)

• SIP: STAR Team Impact Project (MUFON’s field investigations)

To Recap our Previous Article:

Newly surfaced documents show how in 2008, billionaire Robert Bigelow was contracted by the US Government’s Defense Intelligence Agency, and in turn his Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) subcontracted a civilian group, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) to write scientific papers and to conduct field investigations of UFO sightings. However, MUFON was duped; Bigelow did not reveal that their funding came from the Pentagon. Another strange angle is that the language used in the contract and the studies ordered avoided UFO terminology, and it appears to have been a deception to conceal what the government was funding.

Under the BAASS contract, UFO data was to be obtained in three ways. First, the “MUFON Advanced Technology Establishment” (MATE) prepared five scientific papers on advanced aerospace performance, for which they were paid $10,000. Second, they wanted MUFON’s files, and third, to pay them $56,000 a month for on-the-spot investigations of new UFO sightings.

It all went sour over the money, and the two parties had an ugly break-up in early 2010. Here’s a sanitized official view of the BAASS arrangement from the man who helped create it, John Schuessler, in “A Brief History of MUFON,” from 2012:

“In 2008, [director] James Carrion, Jan Harzan, Chuck Modlin and John Schuessler met with Robert Bigelow and his team... Later, Carrion negotiated a contract with Bigelow Aerospace that allowed MUFON to organize a funded rapid-response effort that could put investigators in the field on high value UFO cases within 24-hours. It also gave Bigelow Aerospace access to the MUFON Case Management System. Unfortunately, dissident UFO buffs quickly came up with nonsense conspiracy theories about the cooperative agreement and spread malcontent and disinformation about it across the Internet.”

The Bigelow-MUFON saga was discussed in Sarah Scoles book, They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers:

“Carrion resigned in 2010, putting out a public statement... In it, he revealed his qualms about the Bigelow deal and hinted that the government was involved. Who was the true sponsor of the STAR team? ‘It is time for MUFON to sweep its own house clean,’ the letter concluded. The cobwebs wouldn’t get clear for years—not even when Robert Bigelow landed on the front page of the New York Times.”

That Dec. 16, 2017, New York Times article revealed that Bigelow’s company “hired subcontractors and solicited research for the program.” It confirmed what had been suspected by a few ufologists, that Bigelow was working for the Pentagon, and that his work with MUFON had been part of it.

That disclosure went largely unnoticed at the time, with the focus put on the Navy UFO videos released in connection with the story. What changed things was Tim McMillan’s Feb. 14, 2020, article, Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program, which stated:

“The first pages list the names of every contractor working for BAASS with appropriate security clearances... some of those listed are very familiar to the UFO community, including (Hal) Puthoff, (Eric) Davis, Jacques Vallee, and Colm Kelleher.” It was “full of strategic plans, project summaries, data tables, charts, descriptions of biological field effects, physical characteristics, methods of detection, theoretical capabilities, witness interviews, photographs, and case synopses,” including, “A possible UAP landing reported to BAASS by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and its STAR Team.”

In an interview on Inside the Black Vault with John Greenewald, McMillan mentioned another name in connection with the security clearances:

“...that 10 Month report lists every BAASS contractor who had the clearance to be approved in the program. ...Jacques Vallee, John Schuessler…”

(Jacques Vallee's involvement in BAASS was kept quiet at the time, and ever since. His website bio however, listed him since 2002 as serving on the scientific advisory board of Bigelow Aerospace, and so it remained until 2019. The last name McMillan mentioned seemed way out of place, since John Schuessler was on the Board of Directors of MUFON, and its previous International Director.)

But it was that STAR Team case, the “possible UAP landing” case that MUFON had sent to BAASS that fascinated us, because if specific data could be traced from MUFON to this report, it would conclusively prove the flow of information from a civilian organization into the hands of the Pentagon. That set Roger Glassel in motion, and what we found caused us to reexamine AATIP history with a new set of eyes.

AAWSAP or AATIP, “Mostly Just One Guy?”

In the eyes of Congress, the DIA, and Pentagon spokespersons, AATIP and AAWSAP were the same project, and Dr. Hal Puthoff has stated that AATIP was just a nickname for AAWSAP. However, Luis Elizondo differentiates the two as distinctly separate. Throughout our articles, we have used AAWSAP to refer to the original program, and mostly used AATIP to refer to how the project was discussed after it was publicly revealed. Some readers objected to our previous article’s literary device to illustrate that the size and scope of AATIP had been overinflated in its press debut. We said, that the hype:

“… led us to believe this project was an elite squad operating out of the Pentagon doing hands-on UFO investigations, but it’s slowly come out that at their end, it was a ‘portfolio,’ mainly a part-time job for one guy to collect the material packaged and delivered by Bigelow’s company.”

We don’t have all the puzzled pieces, but if that’s an exaggeration, perhaps not by much. The DIA AAWSAP project was managed by Dr. James T. Lacatski, but essentially all operations were outsourced to BAASS in Las Vegas. About the time Lacatski left, and Luis Elizondo took over, the work from BAASS was gone, or going away. Whatever was left became known as AATIP, basically an internal network with a near-zero budget. Elizondo apparently worked on the project in addition to his other assignments (aka a part-time basis), and while others may have been involved, AATIP was “mostly” Elizondo and his efforts to gather material from the Navy and other branches of military service.

What’s So Bad About Taking a Little Government Money?

Ufology, rightly or not, has cast the US government as the bad guy, the keeper of UFO secrets, so it’s very odd indeed that MUFON would sell out, even unknowingly, to start working for “The Man” in order to facilitate the use of UFO-type technology for commercial or military use. The Bigelow contracts seem to have compromised the organization’s goals and ethics in a number of ways, including:

• Privacy intrusion - from BAASS 3rd party access to witness data

• Background checks - with nosy questions required answered by STAR Team members

• Mandatory Secrecy - NDAs required by BAASS

• Nonprofit status - did MUFON's sale of products to BAASS betray that?

MUFON was hired to facilitate UFO propulsion to Bigelow, part of the “military industrial complex." Unless that was to used to defend the planet, how did they square that with their mission of working for "The Scientific Study of UFOs for the Benefit of Humanity?”

MUFON was hired to facilitate UFO propulsion to Bigelow, part of the “military industrial complex." Unless that was to used to defend the planet, how did they square that with their mission of working for "The Scientific Study of UFOs for the Benefit of Humanity?”

Keith Basterfield

We’ll begin by presenting data shared by Keith Basterfield. His Excel spreadsheet of UFO case investigations by the STAR Impact Program was compiled from the MUFON Journal, and the data shows the number and type of SIP cases that went to Bigelow’s company during the AAWSAP contract. It includes case numbers, which can be used to retrieve more information on each from at the MUFON Case Management System site.

71 MUFON STAR Team reports sent to BAASS

Also, we’ve uploaded a new file with three case files as sample of the SIP field investigations that MUFON sent to Bigelow’s company:

MUFON to BAASS - 3 Sample Cases

The Devil’s Advocate: Possibly Misunderstood, Not Sinister?

The mysterious aerospace billionaire Robert Bigelow would make the excellent basis for a James Bond super-villain, but the real man is more complex. Maybe he has good reasons and a benign motive for his Machiavellian machinations. Bigelow appears to have a sincere and enduring interest in UFO, extraterrestrial and paranormal matters, and while he’s not alone in that, most buffs are not ruthless businessmen with secret government contracts.

Bigelow’s NIDS organization was relatively transparent, with their goals, personnel and research presented openly on their site. Something changed. First NIDS was shut down in 2004 for a flimsy-sounding reason, then the site was scrubbed of data after the AAWSAP contract was awarded.

Rob Swiatek is still on MUFON’s Board of Directors. In April 2009 he wrote a candid letter on the BAASS-MUFON project to veteran UFO researcher James W. Moseley, publisher of the newsletter Saucer Smear. It’s reproduced below, and it almost reads like a postcard from an excited passenger about to board the Titanic:

“...the fortunes of MUFON have catapulted recently, although not from the sinister hand of government. ...Robert Bigelow, and his Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies came to a consensus that, yes, they need data on ...close encounter type cases … Bigelow has agreed to pay for MUFON field investigations… But the initiative is generating its own stress, and MUFON is about to discover what happens when substantial amounts of money are injected into an arena that previously had none…”

Letter from Rob Swiatek of MUFON to Jim Moseley in Saucer Smear, May 1, 2009

John F. Schuessler, letter to Popular Science, Dec 1967

Robert Bigelow’s contact with MUFON was someone that had worked with him in the National Institute for Discovery Science project, John F. Schuessler. It was Schuessler who took his offer to MUFON, and helped set everything up - apparently on both ends.

Unidentified Space Vehicles - that was John Schuessler’s unambiguous designation for UFOs, though his public comments were more moderate. Schuessler retired from Boeing aerospace company at Houston, Texas in 1998. In the 1980’s he preferred his job to be described as “a mechanical engineer employed as McDonnell Douglas project manager for space flight operations” at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. To decode, he was emphasizing that he did not for the US government and NASA, but actually for McDonnell Douglas, a company doing contract work for NASA. The math is simple, though, no NASA, no job. The AAWSAP and BAASS relationship was much the same.

This also shows that Schuessler had a background in working with government projects, and probably a certain level of familiarity and comfort with it. His letter to Popular Science magazine in December 1967 showed his support of government involvement in ufology, but that particular project didn’t end so well:

"Dr. Condon's highly capable group at the University of Colorado has given the investigation of UFO... an air of scientific respectability... a baseline for future efforts."

We’ve not solved the puzzle, just found more of the pieces. Switching analogies, on the UFO chessboard, we don’t even know which pieces Robert Bigelow or John Schuessler are or were. Royalty, or bishops? Surely not pawns.

Public Statements by Bigelow, Elizondo, and Harzan on the BAASS-MUFON Era

The only known photo of AATIP players Bigelow and Elizondo together.

Before we hear the new comments from MUFON players with their side of the story, we’ll take a look at what Robert Bigelow and Luis Elizondo may have recently said about the BAASS-MUFON days. Mr. Bigelow, to the best of our knowledge, has made only one public comment on his involvement since the NYT article in Dec. 2017. In an interview recorded Aug. 28, 2019, with George Knapp, Bigelow almost talked about AATIP matters:

Knapp: “You haven’t spoken about it really since all the news broke, but I mean your fingerprints are all over that stuff. You helped make all that happen.”

Bigelow: “Well, I don’t know about that. I think that the future here is what’s potentially interesting. If these exposures and these exhibitions that are currently ongoing… if they continue, and they provide the opportunity for investigation and to create the awareness… that this phenomena is real.”

AATIP’s Luis Elizondo has only touched on the BAASS-MUFON relationship indirectly, but dropped a big clue about why the Pentagon contact with Bigelow was terminated. In late 2008, (when Bigelow was nervous about maintaining his Government funding) Elizondo quietly entered the picture. In a 2018 interview with George Knapp, Elizondo stated that he joined AAWSAP, admitted that he had coordinated with BAASS, and said:

“... the decision was made to refine and refocus the effort only on... the UAP phenomena, on what it is, and how it works, and and frankly, with a hell of a lot of help from the great folks over at Bigelow Aerospace, the scientists and the researchers over there, we were able to successfully do that. AAWSAP was a slightly larger-focused program, and we really quickly realized it was basically taking a shotgun approach to the problem, and what we needed was a sniper rifle. So basically, what we decided to do was focus the aperture on what it is we were trying to achieve...”

MUFON’s current Executive Director Jan Harzan spoke about AATIP on the MUFON Podcast Episode I, June 6, 2019, and he praised (former BAASS contractor) Hal Puthoff’s connections, so maybe he honestly doesn’t see working with the government as a problem:

“We’ve had some major things happen here in the last 18 months... TTSA... major news coverage by the New York Times, and breaking this front page cover story that the Pentagon had a secret UFO program, and then of course, Lue Elizondo stepping out of the shadows... I just had an opportunity to to know Lue since that all happened, and Tom DeLonge, and Stephen Justice, and Chris Mellon, and of course Hal Puthoff, who’s been a long, long, long time MUFON member, and I couldn't think of a finer group of men of government service to come out and share this.”

MUFON’s Response to Questions about the Bigelow Contracts

Seeking comments about what MUFON research may have been used by BAASS in their work with the Pentagon, we reached out to those involved in the 2008 - 2009 BAASS contracts. We began by asking each of them if they had seen the Feb. 14, 2020, Popular Mechanics article, “Inside the Pentagon’s Secret UFO Program” by Tim McMillan, which stated:

We asked if that was accurate, and whether MUFON had received a copy of that BAASS 10 Month Report. From MUFON’s Executive Director, Jan Harzan, ex-Director John Schuessler, BAASS contractor Hal Puthoff, Luis Elizondo, and an executive assistant for Robert Bigelow, there was nothing.

MUFON Board of Directors at the 2009 Symposium: Tom Deuley, Jan Harzan, Dr. Bob Wood, Cliff Clift, John F. Schuessler, and Rob Swiatek, Not pictured: Chuck Reever. (From MUFON UFO Journal, Aug. 2009.)

Tom Deuley, formerly of the MUFON Board of Directors courteously replied, but said that he was no longer active in the organization, and did not wish to make a statement. However, three others did respond with comments.

Robert Powell (now with the SCU), former MUFON national research director replied:
“I was not privy to the information that MUFON shared with BAASS.” In a follow-up, we asked specifically about his work in the MATE project, and he said, ”I'm sorry but I can't help you as all work that I ever did for BAASS was confidential and under a NDA.” He subsequently was able to confirm the project, saying, “Yes, MUFON did have a MATE team and I was part of that team.”

Rob Swiatek, from the MUFON Board of Directors replied:
“I seem to recall there was a landing or a CEII case the Bigelow investigators looked in to. MUFON did not receive a copy of the BAASS 10-month report. I was on the board at the time (still am) and never heard a whisper of such a report at the time.”
He later kindly added, “I’ve gone back and reviewed some documents to refresh my memory on how matters stood in 2009 re. MUFON and BAASS. ...MUFON’s STAR Impact Project (the ‘rapid response field investigators’) didn’t begin operations until April 2009. (To best of my knowledge, this was also the date on which MUFON began supplying case information to Bigelow.) ...In all—from April to October 2009—STAR teams were deployed about 45 times across the U.S. MUFON’s contract with BAASS ended in October 2009, and the flow of case information would have ceased sometime around then as well.”

James Carrion, former MUFON International Director (2006 - 2009) replied:
“Unfortunately I did not [see the BAASS document] as I would love to compare the report to the stream of SIP data that MUFON fed BAASS and ascertain whether it was a good portion of this report. By June 2009, Bigelow complained MUFON wasn't giving him his money's worth, but if the report shows that MUFON contributed the bulk ...well you can do the math on that one as to Bigelow's character.”

Carrion was involved in virtually all aspects of the BAASS-MUFON story up until the time of his resignation. While researching this story, we asked science journalist Sarah Scoles if she’d talked to him while writing her book, They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers. She said, “... I did talk to James Carrion. We met once in person when he was in Colorado, and... [had an] interview over the phone. ...it seemed like the book would be incomplete without an account of his time at MUFON during the AATIP years (although I didn't succeed in tying MUFON and AATIP together by more than inference).”

Hearing about the MUFON data used in the BAASS 10 Month Report seemed to change Carrion’s willingness to protect the secrets of the relationship. We contacted him for a series of questions about the events and people involved, and he gradually opened up with some valuable information on a key aspect of the AATIP story.

An Interview with James Carrion

Q: James, I found your 2011 blog article “Strange Bedfellows” (which discusses his resignation from MUFON), and would like to hear if you now think that the undisclosed backer for the MUFON/BAASS contract STAR Team Impact Project (SIP) was the DIA/OSD with the AATIP/AAWSA program? Reading old MUFON Journals, the story seems to fit, with BAASS hiring fifty scientists to help with the SIP, and some of the areas of interest were the same as that of AAWSAP.

Carrion: I would have to say yes… given the timing of Bigelow's startup activity and engagement with MUFON. Bigelow disclosed the sponsor to Schuessler but not the rest of the MUFON Board. You could ask [John] Schuessler straight up if Bigelow told him it was the DIA.

Q: (Referring to details shared in our first article) Why did BAASS not ask for more of the technical papers by the MUFON Advanced Technology Establishment team - the 12 areas of interest?

Carrion: Perhaps the MATE reports were the carrot for MUFON's initial involvement... Is there any proof that the MATE reports went anywhere past Bigelow's desk? After the MATE papers delivery that was the end of any conversation regarding MATE. The focus then shifted 100% to BAASS contracting MUFON.

Contract negotiations: Las Vegas, NV, Jan. 2009
BAASS: Hal Puthoff and Jacques Vallee, MUFON: John Schuessler

Q: At the January 2009 Las Vegas meeting (to set up the SIP field investigations contract) with Robert Bigelow and his BAASS team, I believe you'd already interacted with Colm Kelleher, but when did you first know that Hal Puthoff and Jacques Vallee were involved?

Carrion: The first I knew of Puthoff and Vallée’s involvements was when they showed up at the January meeting.

Q: What were their roles in this meeting, and what did they say about their work for Bigelow?

Carrion: I was never told exactly what their roles were. Neither Puthoff nor Vallee volunteered any information to me about what exactly they were doing on the project.

Q: What interaction did you have (before during or after the Las Vegas meeting) with Douglas Kurth? (Kurth was the BAASS Program Manager, a retired Marine Corps Commander and USS Nimitz UFO witness.)

Carrion: I had no interactions with Kurth at all.

Q: Can you tell me anything memorable about what Robert Bigelow said or did during this January 2009 meeting?

Carrion: Nothing memorable that Bigelow himself said but I found it highly unusual that he proposed increasing the amount of money to spend on SIP staff incentives after the meeting. As much of a penny pincher he is and as much they dug into every detail of how the money was being spent, in hindsight this appears odd.

Q: What did Robert Bigelow tell you about how they were using the material MUFON provided?

Carrion: SIP - to achieve breakthroughs in aerospace technology by learning from UFOs - either through observation or gathering of physical material.

Q: What were you told about BAASS’s own UFO research?

Carrion: Nothing was communicated about individual projects.

Q: We know now that the BAASS-MUFON relationship was doomed no matter what, because Bigelow lost his AAWSAP funding the next year. Briefly, had it not soured, what do you think might have happened with MUFON in another year of operation?

Carrion: Just more of the same. "Not managing" but still managing MUFON through the gullible Board of Directors and squeezing everything he could out of the organization for the least dollars possible.

Q: Did you suspect that “the sponsor” who provided Bigelow's funding was a government entity?

Carrion: No, because of the assurances given by John Schuessler at the time.

To document this, Carrion provided an exchange of emails that took place shortly after the BAASS Las vegas meeting. On Feb. 11, 2009, Chuck Reever cautioned that “... if funding depends on Government sources this could be a problem if that information ever leaked.” Carrion replied, “The funding is coming from BAASS ‘sponsors’ which John Schuessler knows and feels comfortable with but that we are not privy to. I asked if there was any government ties at the meeting with Bigelow and he stated no.”

Reever-Carrion emails from Feb. 11, 2009.

Two years later, James Carrion was interviewed on ...Feb, 20, 2011. At 41:15 minutes into the show, Carrion told the same story about the Bigelow meeting in slightly different words:
“I point-blank asked him, ‘Is this government money?’ and Mr. Bigelow said, no.”

Picking up the Scent: The FAA and the UFO Hotline

There were some early hints that Robert Bigelow’s contract with MUFON was part of his relationship with the US government, and one of the first to gather evidence was their state director for Utah, Elaine Douglass. She sent emails to MUFON leaders in December 2010, with privacy concerns over material inserted into UFO the reporting during the BAASS contract. It asked for: “consent to the release of your contact information to 3rd parties not connected to or affiliated with MUFON.” Douglass received no reply, but when another MUFON member asked, director Clifford Clift responded, saying it was to employ outside labs and consultants in investigations, and that, ”There are no conspiracies and no intent by MUFON to hide things from members. Trust MUFON.” Be that as it may, many witnesses would not have been comfortable knowing “3rd party” BAASS might have put their personal information and report into government hands.

Discussing possible government involvement, Douglass wrote, “since an intelligence agency wouldn’t want to reveal it was operating within MUFON, it might send in a front company such as Bigelow Aerospace with a cover story such as that Robert Bigelow hoped to learn the principles of alien technology so he could commercialize space vehicles.”

FAA manual entry on BAASS

In 2001, Robert Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Science proudly announced on their site: “NIDS Becomes Only Official Organization to Receive UFO Reports from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) June 22, 2001.”

And so it remained until after BAASS was launched, then listing was changed. An FAA memo effective July 29, 2010 stated:

“One of the organizations (National Institute for Discovery Sciences (NIDS)) that would receive and investigate UFO/unexplained phenomena activity has morphed into a new larger organization called Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). ... air traffic control reporting of UFOs in the United States should now go to BAASS...”

A logo was all that remained on the NIDS site

NIDS shut down in 2004, but their website remained with their many UFO articles. That is until around the time of the AAWSAP contract, when most of the content was removed. By the time of the FAA listing for BAASS, Bigelow’s NIDS site was defunct altogether.

Alfred Lambremont Webre looked into the BAASS-FAA connection in the Examiner.com, April 7, 2010, article, “Robert Bigelow's and MUFON's hybrid UFO investigation venture 'under review' in 2010.” Webre called Dr. Colm A. Kelleher, BAASS Deputy Administrator, about the UFO hotline. Kelleher confirmed that BAASS had an office to receive UFO reports., but minimized it, and Webre reported, “He stated that the monthly volume of UFO reports received by BAASS is ‘infrequent.’ Dr. Kelleher stated that BAASS received no FAA funds for receiving UFO reports. This reporter verified that BAASS UFO hotline staff was on duty to receive UFO reports.”

True, the company received no FAA money, but Kelleher was not asked, nor was he inclined to volunteer, anything about the DIA funding for BAASS. Webre also discussed confidential documents that were anonymously leaked, but Dr. Kelleher did not wish “to comment on the leaked BAASS-MUFON documents.”

Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura - Skinwalker

Elaine Douglass received a copy of the leaked BAASS-MUFON contract, then shared it among the UFO community on Jan. 15, 2011. Later, Douglass gave Robert Bigelow some unwanted exposure the next year, on Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura: Skinwalker, Season 3: Episode 5, Dec. 3, 2012. Ventura’s investigation-style reality show was intentionally far-out, and it often included Alex Jones, and while the show itself was looney, this episode did capture a few interesting bits, and it documented Bigelow discussing UFOs around the end of his AATIP relationship.

Ventura interviewed Elaine Douglass about BAASS having “unseen backers,” and she told how Bigelow insisted upon control and secrecy in his contract with MUFON. There were two brief “ambush interviews'' of Bigelow. In the first, Ventura asked him about how BAASS was listed as the place to report UFO sightings in the FAA manual, but Bigelow seemed to duck the question.

Later in the episode, Ventura spoke to retired Col. John B. Alexander, who took credit for arranging the FAA listing - but did not explain that it’d originated years before, with NIDS. In Alexander’s 2011 book, UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies and Realities, he described how he had arranged a meeting in Washington, D.C., that included himself, Bigelow, Colm Kelleher and FAA officials where they volunteered NIDS:

”to be their 911, and that they would not assume any risk or cost, they agreed... and did post the information in their operations manual. After NIDS was closed, Bigelow established a follow-on organization called Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) to pick up the mission.”

Bigelow’s involvement with the FAA extends into his AAWSAP contract days, and can by extension, be rightfully considered part of the AATIP story. In the episode's second mini-interview with Bigelow, Sean Stone got in a few quick UFO questions, including one about sharing his research. He asked, “Would you ever consider putting together some kind of dossier or document based on all the investigation that you have done over the years?”

Robert Bigelow replied, “I try to stay away from words like ever or never. ...I think now is not the time for that, and I don’t see that on the horizon…”

The Legacy of Elaine Douglass

Elaine Douglass from the first issue of JAR magazine.

Elaine Douglass worked for the Department of Defense, and after retiring became a full time UFO investigator from the mid-1980s, and a founding editor of JAR magazine. She was MUFON State Director for Utah, but was fired in 2010, and formed the Committee to Reform MUFON (CRM). One of Elaine’s big concerns was the involvement of Robert Bigelow in MUFON, and the secrecy regarding it. Those issues were never resolved, and Elaine lost her battle with cancer and passed away in 2014.

Marilyn Carlson of CRM created The Elaine Douglass Files to preserve Marilyn’s research documents. and correspondence. Unfortunately, the site is now defunct, and in what seems to be a cruel twist of fate, MUFON now houses the physical collection of Elaine Douglass’ files. Fortunately, it was not all lost. Marilyn gave permission for UFO archivist Issac Koi to collect Elaine’s files as a PDF, which is now permanently hosted at the Archives for the Unexplained (AFU) website as the Elaine Douglass Files.

On The UFO Trail of Robert Bigelow

Jack Brewer has been following the involvement of Robert Bigelow in ufology for many years at The UFO Trail. We reached out to him for comment on the exposure of government funding in the BAASS-MUFON relationship.

“The actions of Mr. Bigelow do not necessarily reflect those of someone with objectives of facilitating quality research or disseminating accurate information. For decades, however, organizations and people within the UFO genre framed him as a benevolent philanthropist and reliable source. Such a portrayal has not been entirely established and there is much evidence to refute it. A lack of transparency was long at issue, translating into questions of methodologies, objectives, ethics, and even competence. Now that Mr. Bigelow’s involvement with the DIA was established, it would seem questions will justifiably persist.”

Brewer also pointed out two other earlier unsettling episodes of MUFON’s files being purchased by Bigelow or a “sponsor.”

The Carpenter Affair - Circa 1995: Bigelow’s purchase of MUFON’s Alien Abduction Records, which included sensitive witness information.

“The Carpenter Affair: For the Record,” Oct. 22, 2013

MUFON’s Ambient Monitoring Project - Circa 2008 Originally “the Abduction Monitoring Project” Which he says “was a rather odd initiative with an unnamed financial sponsor...”Reportedly completed, the data/results seemed to vanish.

“What Happened to the Ambient Monitoring Project?”, April 2, 2014

Brewer also obtained documents pertaining to the 2008 BAASS-AAWSAP contract, and it shows the DIA’s refusal to reveal the identity to a FOIA requester in 2011:

“DIA Withheld AAWSAP Contract Awarded to BAASS in 2011 FOIA Response,” Aug. 1, 2019

Documents released responding to Brewer’s 2019 FOIA:

Defense Intelligence Agency... Dear Mr. Brewer

Dissident UFO Buffs

We now know that back in 2008, Robert Bigelow turned to MUFON for aid, and they provided guidance that shaped not only the creation of BAASS, the entire scope of the UFO project, and also key material produced for AAWSAP. It appears that a significant portion of the BAASS Ten Month Report may have been derived from MUFON SIP casework, from the CMS database, and from the guidance of their MATE papers. Then, the whole thing vanished, despite MUFON’s mandate, which reflects the N in their name, Network, for their “dedication to sharing UFO information and research data…” Somehow it got all twisted around by the secrecy agendas of a billionaire and a US intelligence program.

As mere mortals, maybe we shouldn’t question the wisdom of the Gods of Olympus, the Pentagon or even the man behind the curtain in the land of Oz. MUFON portrayed the critics of the Bigelow deal as complainers, crackpots and conspiracy theorists. To them, James Carrion was only a disgruntled ex-Director, Elaine Douglass was only a fired Utah State Director and nutty old gal, Jack Brewer was only a nobody blogger and keyboard warrior. However, these three were no over-imaginative Chicken Littles. All these “dissident UFO buffs” had been saying the emperor had no clothes, and in time, they were proven right.

In our closing exchange with James Carrion, he expressed the opinion that since the cat is out of the bag about BAASS and MUFON, maybe those involved will no longer be bound by their NDAs. If nothing else, we now have more pieces of the puzzle, and it’s a foundation to build on. We hope it goes much further still; that all parties involved - from the contractors, the technical paper authors, to the US government itself - will open up and end the protracted drama about the secrecy surrounding AATIP. The ultimate goal is to clean away the debris and proceed with clarity. That would be a good first step towards chipping away at some secrets that really matter.

. . .

This and the preceding article was put together drawing from a great many sources. In the link below, we’ve gathered the primary documentation into a PDF, which includes the two BAASS-MUFON contracts, leaked emails, other documents, and four of the MUFON Advanced Technology Establishment papers produced for BAASS.

AAWSAP-BAASS-MUFON Document Collection 2008 - 2009

Dedicated to the memory of the late Elaine Douglass.

Special thanks to Clas Svahn, Isaac Koi, Keith Basterfield, Sarah Scoles, Tim McMillan, Jack Brewer, for research, materials, documents, advice and fact-checking. And to “David Vincent,” and “Claude Lacombe,” without whom none of this would have been possible.

Sources, Resources, and Further Details on BAASS and MUFON’s SIP (Revised)

Freedom of Information Act Requests have not yet produced any material of substance on AATIP, in part because of the “commercial in confidence” nature of the AAWSAP contract with BAASS. Most of the other sources remain bound by NDAs relating to long-dead projects, but journalists such as George Knapp and Tim McMillan have presented documents from unnamed anonymous sources relating to the Pentagon’s AATIP study. In our report, we’ve depended chiefly on items of demonstrable provenance, but also have referenced a dossier of BAASS-MUFON documents from a confidential, but verified source. Some of the material used in this story references previous leaks of BAASS-MUFON documents.

MUFON’s SIP training materials. Archived page:
MUFON STAR Impact Project (SIP) Information Page, March 5, 2009

Keith Basterfield, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - scientific research,
an invaluable resource on the AATIP saga: BAASS articles

Jack Brewer, The Greys Have Been Framed: Exploitation in the UFO Community, Dec. 16, 2015

Jack Brewer, “UFO-Pentagon Story Reflects Fundamental Problems,” Dec. 20, 2017

This article contains a post-AATIP reveal statement by James Carrion.

James Carrion, “Strange Bedfellows,” Jan. 31, 2011

Also, see Carrion’s article, “What is Really Happening at the Skinwalker Ranch?” from Feb. 8, 2011, where he discusses “uncovering disturbing information about the Skinwalker Ranch owned by Robert Bigelow [and] began to have doubts about the real purpose behind the MUFON-BAASS project.”

Curt Collins, “UFOs, the Media, the Military & Dreams of Discovery,” Dec. 27, 2017

Released shortly after the first AATIP story, an examination of Bigelow’s acquisition or hoarding of UFO databases.

Elaine Douglass, “The Gagged-for-life Star Team Confidentiality Agreement”, May 12, 2011

The Elaine Douglass Files includes a dossier on Bigelow and his UFO-related activity.

The Committee to Reform MUFON (defunct, last archived Jan. 3, 2014)

Richard Lang, “What caused the Failure of the BAASS - MUFON SIP Program?,” March 6, 2011. “During the period from February 2009 until the end of January 2010, I served as the STAR Team Manager and SIP Project Coordinator.”

Sarah Scoles, They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers, 2020

Chapter 5 on Robert Bigelow, “The Patron Saint, or Something, of Saucers”

Tim McMillan, Popular Mechanics, “Inside the Pentagon’s Secret UFO Program,” Feb. 14, 2020

Erik Seedhouse, Bigelow Aerospace: Colonizing Space One Module at a Time, 2014

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

The Pentagon UFO Program’s Secret Partner


The Navy Responds in Detail Re The UFO Videos, AATIP, Unknown Technology and More ...

What is Really Happening at the Skinwalker Ranch?

Does Bigelow Aerospace Have Alien Technology? | UFO NEWS | VIDEO

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE