5

THE GOVERNMENT AND UFOS

What I want is to get done what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to find that out exactly.

—ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Public Assumptions and Trust

Please don’t skip this chapter. It is absolutely essential to understanding what the government knows, or doesn’t know, about UFOs—and the facts are probably far different from what you currently think. This is especially true for most UFO enthusiasts, but holds for the general public as well. After all, polls have shown that a very large portion of the population believes that the U.S. Government is withholding information about UFOs. In 1997 a CNN/Time poll found that 80 percent of Americans thought that their government was hiding knowledge about the existence of extraterrestrial life. In the same poll 64 percent believed that intelligent aliens have contacted humans. A short time later, in 2002, a Roper Poll reported similar results and indicated that 72 percent of their respondents believed the government was not telling what it knows about UFOs. More specifically, 68 percent believed the government was hiding information that was known about extraterrestrial life. Of the Roper respondents, 12 percent said they, or someone they know, had seen a UFO at close quarters. In addition, 2 percent indicated that those close-quarter events included contact with an ET. While 2 percent may not sound like a lot, it would mean that six million Americans believe it had happened to them or a close friend.

In 2007 MSNBC conducted a less scientific poll concerning ET visitations. Only 12 percent of the respondents indicated they did not believe it had already happened. Again a majority, 63 percent, believed ET has come, while 25 percent thought that such contact may have occurred but needed more evidence to be convinced.

Those are astonishing numbers and certainly indicative of a huge credibility problem for the government. Given the political climate that has existed for the past decade, trust in public officials is a vanishing commodity. While most of the known deception has been linked to very terrestrial incidents (WMDs in Iraq, Saddam’s support of 9/11, the need to pony up hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out banks from a self-induced collapse and the failing automotive industry), the UFO issue adds a small, but not insignificant, piece to the collective opinion that our elected leadership is less than honest, and hardly operates with promised transparency.

As was mentioned in chapter 1, when coordinating the UFO study issue, members of the ATP study too believed that somebody must be minding the store. It was not until several years were spent gathering data and meeting with senior officials that the present understanding of the situation was derived. There is no intention to convince you that the government deserves your trust. Rather, commonsense issues are addressed that shed light on how the government approaches intractable problems in general, and UFOs in particular.

One of the most basic problems about how the public sees the role of the U.S. Government regarding UFOs is that they simply do not understand how it works. The unfortunate reality is that the foreign immigrants who acquire U.S. citizenship know far more about the functioning of our government than do the vast majority of those who are native born. Civics lessons are no longer a priority in our high school educational system and just do not appear in colleges or universities unless one majors in political science.

It is also important to recognize that “The Government” is not a single monolithic entity. Unfortunately, the media and most people talk about the government as if it were so simple. In reality it is made up of millions of people, all functioning at different levels. I often joke about being in the Pentagon and looking for the voice that talked to the media. The headlines frequently stated, “The Pentagon says…” However, the Pentagon is a building and it says nothing. People in that building do make statements but they should rightfully be attributed to the Secretary of Defense, or the person making the comment, not the building.

Understanding this concept is important to the study of UFOs. When reading the issues addressed at the beginning of this chapter, there is an unstated assumption that if knowledge of UFOs existed in an office somewhere in the vast bureaucracy, then the entire government is therefore responsible for concealing the information. Like all large institutions, communication, especially between agencies, is a generic weakness. Because one person or office acquires information, it cannot be assumed that the data are shared with others. Also it should not be assumed that every inquiry is indicative of institutional interest. The ability to track the source of computer searches has exacerbated this notion in UFO circles. Just because some individual from an official agency accessed a Web site does not mean the the government is monitoring them, or necessarily even interested in the topic. Most of the visits are just indicative of personal curiosity. In addition, it is important to distinguish between an individual’s expressed opinion and those statements espoused on behalf of the organization. The latter are usually coordinated, allowing the various stakeholders, who are people with a vested interest, to have input.

Large Institutions and Change

There are certain fundamental characteristics that underlie all large institutions—the U.S. Government included. First and foremost institutions exist to serve themselves. Maintaining their status and staying in power are their chief concerns, thus making them increasingly conservative and resistant to change. Those qualities are not all bad, as frequent changes in priorities or direction lead to instability and lack of confidence. It is recognized that change is constant, but the rate varies. However, one of the conditions institutions fear most is disruptive change. That is unprogrammed change usually precipitated by a catastrophic event, such as the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti or the tsunami that inundated low-lying areas of Southeast Asia in 2004, both causing major loss of life and restructuring societies. Or disruptive change may come from rapid infusion of new technologies that dramatically alter daily life for constituents. Certainly rapid advances in information technologies have generated tremendous social change based on how information is disseminated and acted upon. Moore’s Law states that information processing capability will double about every eighteen months, which has already led to faster communication on a global basis. Incidents happening in one part of the world are transmitted abroad instantly, despite attempts by some governments to stop them. Twitter, Facebook, and eBay have all demonstrated how rapidly social norms can shift in both communications and economics. This affects those interested in UFOs as reports and photos are circulated in near real time. Of course the downside is that there is no time for reasoned analysis and erroneous and fraudulent entries proliferate.

When faced with change that can be predicted, but with results that are likely to overwhelm the institution’s capability to respond, a frequent strategy is to ignore the evidence as long as possible. Consider how governments have responded to ever-mounting documentation that climate changes were occurring on a global scale. The alarms have been ringing for decades but action has been limited. Ignoring the problem can come in the form of studies. Administrators faced with monumental issues always resort to calling for another study. They claim there is not enough data to support a response at that time and can always find scientists with a contrary opinion. And, that is what happens when highly visible issues are put on the table.

While global climate change is a series of high-probability, high-impact, and resource-overwhelming events, UFO observations fall into a totally different category. To date they have exhibited low-probability, low-impact characteristics—except for the few individuals who state that their life has been disrupted. That is, while a limited number of verifiable events have been recorded, they have had little disruptive impact on societies. The probability of an all-out invasion by hostile extraterrestrials may rank high in Hollywood, but it is deemed as an extraordinarily low probability by officials who would be responsible for organizing a human response. It is in this context that the role of the U.S. Government’s involvement in studying UFOs should be examined.

How Things Work—It’s Not What Most Think

Of the three branches of the U.S. Federal Government, the Executive Branch is by far the most important when it comes to UFOs. It has the organizations that do things. The Legislative Branch has some budgetary and oversight responsibilities, while the Judiciary Branch is pretty far removed from the action. While we are the most litigious society in the world, Federal lawsuits about UFOs have played only an extremely minor role when it comes to advancing knowledge of the field. Lawsuits to facilitate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests did produce a small amount of information. In the case known as Cash-Landrum—which will be covered in more detail later—the legal actions against the U.S. Government were thrown out as a causal relationship between the injuries sustained by the individuals and the actions of any government agency could not be established. Such legal interventions are quite rare.

The public in general and UFO buffs in particular assume that the government must have an interest in UFOs just because these anomalies are reported. Unfortunately that is not true. Large institutions are very bureaucratic in nature. In the Executive Branch each agency has specified functions. These functions have been legislatively delegated and can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). There are fifty subdivisions to the CFR and they describe the broad functions and responsibilities of all of the agencies of the government. You will frequently hear senior executives explaining their actions in terms of the duties and responsibilities under the titles that apply to their organization and that establish their legal responsibilities.

An underlying assumption for most people is that responsibility for UFOs would belong to the Department of Defense (DoD). That is a reasonable initial assumption. As we saw in chapter 3, all of the early studies focused specifically on determining whether or not UFOs constituted a threat. Under Title 10, Armed Forces of the CFR, the Defense Department is tasked with maintaining the national security of the United States.

Of course, under these titles the Department of Defense is given broad latitude in determining what actions are necessary to accomplish the functions of national security. However, the Department of Defense is requirements driven. That means that everything that is done is based on validated written requirements. For most functions establishing requirements is a rigid and extensive formal process. As an example, when nonlethal weapons were first being seriously considered in DoD, there were no written requirements. Even though there was an urgent need to field such systems, it literally took years to get the first formal requirements coordinated and approved.

The Budget and Priorities

As big as the DoD budget is, it remains the aforementioned zero-sum game, meaning for every project that gains funding, another must lose theirs. Interdepartmental, as well as intradepartmental, battles over funding are vicious and played by the most ruthless, merciless bastards on the planet. The DoD budget process is driven by what is known as the Program Objective Memorandum or POM. The budget cycle addresses money being spent in the current year and for funding into the future for a total of seven years. This is a terribly complex process and details are not necessary at this point. What is important to know is that it is a continual process in which programs are constantly being evaluated with a myriad of comptroller vultures waiting to pounce on any perceived programmatic weakness. This has been particularly true in the past decade as massive funds had to be allocated to fight the Global War on Terror (GWOT), including invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq. Most readers will probably not be familiar with the budgetary impact of GWOT, under President Obama called Overseas Contingency Operations, as it has affected the military services—it has been devastating. Just note that most research and development programs, as well as training funds, have taken tremendous cuts and are constantly under scrutiny as bill payers (sources from which funds can be transferred to other projects).

One of the most mystifying terms used in the Pentagon is: “I’m going to find the money.” When executives say they are looking for money, they really mean they are going after funds that are already dedicated to some current project. Understanding this process is important only in that provides the reader some context about how a UFO project might get funded. The point here is where are the requirements for DoD to be involved in studying UFOs? Experience says they don’t exist.

Contrary to popular belief, there are no black projects that are exempt from oversight. This is a major misconception promulgated in the civilian sector by people who have no understanding of what is referred to as the Black World. It is true that there are highly classified programs that receive less scrutiny than other, open source programs. However, within those domains there are technical review committees and bodies that are intensely interested in what gets funded and what does not. Just like in the White World, as those open source programs are known, the competition for money, people, facilities, etc., remains fierce. Here too it is a zero-sum game, and the same issues of diminishing resources come into play. While the Legislative Branch of government, Congress, is responsible for providing funds to the Department of Defense, they are also charged with oversight. With highly classified programs there are fewer legislators involved in the process, but they are there.

There Is No Alternate Chain of Command

An important point that rebuts the conspiracy theory notion that people are required to lie to senior officials about the existence of a UFO program is an apparent lack of understanding of where the DoD fits under the Executive Branch. The whole thing, including all of the agencies, comes together under the President of the United States who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. By law, the Secretary of Defense reports to the President. By law, the officers and civilian appointees of the DoD report to the Secretary of Defense. By law, there is no place where one is allowed to deny information to those positions. This notion of legally withholding information from these key people is a fantasy that has been proffered by theorists who have to explain why certain officials have no knowledge of the UFO topic. Secrecy and how it impacts the field of UFOs is covered in Chapter 12. In understanding how the Executive Branch works, note that the President is in charge—over everything. Just because a program is black does not allow underlings to determine the validity of reporting required information.

From a practical standpoint, that does not mean the President knows everything that is going on in his or her administration. One of the biggest problems at the highest senior leadership levels is determining what information is important and providing data in a highly synthesized, yet understandable, manner. There are simply too many balls in the air at any given moment for any single individual to have cognizance of them all. The senior executives have to know which issues are rubber and will bounce if dropped, and which are made of crystal and likely to shatter on impact. Unfortunately for people interested in phenomenology, at the POTUS (an acronym for President of the United States) or White House levels, UFOs do not fit in either category.

There are many organizations not related to the DoD that are responsible for extensive research on a broad range of topics. In fact, the national laboratory system is conducted by the Department of Energy. And there are smaller institutions, such as the National Science Foundation, that also fund research projects. However, there is no Department of Good Ideas that is tasked with looking into anomalies, no matter how important they might appear to some people. In order for any topic to be researched, it must fit into some bureaucratic box so that the funding can be established. Americans demonstrate an extremely high degree of ingenuity. They are constantly coming up with good ideas that are worthy of serious consideration. From a government funding standpoint, the problem for people with those good ideas becomes finding an organization with compatible goals and responsibilities. It is also important that the agency has the funds available and that the concept is adjudicated at a level high enough to obtain support.

The real funding issue is that all of the U.S. Government agencies run out of money long before they run out of good ideas and approved projects that deserve attention. All agencies have “1-to-n” priority lists. The most important project is assigned 1, and the list runs in descending order to “n,” meaning some unspecified number that is last on that list. Included on the lower end of these lists are what are called unfunded requirements. These are approved projects with established requirements, but there’s not enough money allocated in the budget to cover them. The problem of funding a UFO project can be understood if the readers could place themselves in the role of a senior manager. They would be encumbered with legal, fiscal responsibilities; ones that can come with penalties including the possibilities of fines or incarceration if violated. Then one should determine where support for UFOs would fit when compared to all of the other priorities duly assigned to that organization. At least in theory, the decisions should be made based on defensible logic, not emotion. Again, in all government budget priority lists, the organization runs out of money long before they run out of projects with validated requirements. This is the environment in which a UFO project would have to compete for funding and other scarce resources such as qualified personnel. When viewed from a real-world management perspective, it is hard to envision a senior official risking other projects of their agency, or in extreme cases their career, just to fund a UFO project.

How Bureaucrats Think

Bureaucrats tend to think like engineers or bricklayers. The applicable motto could be “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” In other words, they are very concerned about which box to put things in, but often couldn’t care less about the outcomes of specific actions. While a bit of an overstatement—as there are certainly many professional people who take pride in their work—too frequently senior bureaucrats are more concerned about organizational propriety than the product. Remember the lesson from the Condon Report. Regarding that study, the desired outcome for the U.S. Air Force was to be relieved of responsibilities for investigating UFOs. Mission accomplished.

For many bureaucrats, issues and actions that cross institutional lines are perplexing, especially if they have a potential for undesirable characteristics or consequences. Like UFOs, whenever possible such issues are to be pushed on to some other organization, or simply avoided entirely, with the hope that some event won’t come back to bite you. While usually small, there are huge cross-jurisdictional issues, such as those leading up to 9/11, that have catastrophic results. Simply put, avoid tar babies.

Worth noting is this bureaucratic infighting is exactly what happens with UFO sightings. They pop up from time to time, as was demonstrated when Congressman Steve Schiff of New Mexico asked the Department of Defense for an explanation of the Roswell event. First he was ignored. Then he was given an incomplete and dismissive response that did not address the facts, which was signed by a relatively lower level staff officer. Schiff followed up by addressing the Secretary of Defense directly but still never received a fully satisfactory answer. Following classic bureaucratic maneuvering, the action was passed to the General Accounting Office (GAO) for processing. In the end the Air Force was plagued by some minor, institutionally irritating press, and the topic drifted off into oblivion. For those interested, the GAO report can be accessed on the Internet. In short, the GAO report stated they contacted all of the usual suspects (DoD, CIA, FBI, etc.). As a result, they acknowledged that something unusual happened on July 1947 near Roswell, but that it was not a UFO crash.

The well-known advice from Deep Throat to Woodward and Bernstein—to “follow the money”—remains valid, and the funding process of Congress is worth considering when attempting to understand the workings of any program, including ones that might involve UFOs. By design there are two distinctly different congressional bills involved in providing funds to all governmental agencies. One part of that process is the Appropriations Bill. It is this bill that establishes the amount of money that can be used by the agencies and for what purposes and sets it aside in the U.S. Treasury. Then there is the Authorizations Bill, which becomes the public law that authorizes the agencies to actually spend the money for the projects that are addressed in the bill. To spend money on programs not specifically approved is an illegal act.

Obviously some funding can be, and is, hidden. The public has been made aware of some of these misapplications of funds. That is why specific funding thresholds are established throughout the process. Circumvention of the process, such as happened in the Iran-Contra scenario, is illegal. The result was demonstrated when senior Reagan officials were charged with Federal crimes. At lower levels of the organizational structure the amount of money that can be reprogrammed from one project to another is relatively small. As the amount of money to be moved increases, so does the level of authority for reprogramming. For large sums to be transferred, agencies are required to request congressional approval before the money moves. Failure to follow these rules is a crime.

There Are Many Players, and Not All Are Visible

How the appropriations or the authorizations bill gets written is intentionally mystifying to the public. This is where the lobbyists get actively involved. There are many offers to assist the Congressional staffers, who are generally well meaning, but constantly overworked. Of course the lobbyists generally have a dog in the fight, meaning a vested interest in the outcome. Therefore their assistance is self-serving and should be viewed with extreme caution. Rampant examples of lobbyist influence were apparent in congressional actions regarding health care, banking, and finance. For perspective, during the health care debates there were an estimated six lobbyists for every Member of Congress. Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, the Chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Panel (formerly known as TARP), noted that banking lobbyists hit every Congressional office four to five times per day. Strong, too, in pleading their cases have been the tobacco lobby and the NRA. The legislative results are obvious.

For comparison, there is only one lone registered UFO lobbyist. For many years Steve Bassett has been making the rounds, talking to whomever he can about issues of disclosure of whatever the government knows about the topic. Process-savvy, Bassett has been able to energize people interested in UFOs to make noise and at least let staffers know that someone is concerned. As a one-man band you can imagine his ability to influence policy makers as compared to the powerful special interest groups just mentioned.

One purpose in addressing Congressional funding is to point out the number of places that oversight takes place. Both Senators and Members of the House of Representatives covet positions related to appropriations and authorization. They are positions of power for both them and their staff members. In order to get money approved, information must be provided to these committees. Even the Black World budget has some people looking closely into programs. Access to those classified programs also yields a higher degree of power. Remember, the committees mentioned are chaired by a member of the dominant party in Congress. The leadership has changed hands many times during the period since UFOs became an issue. In a city that runs on power and influence, I’m confident that if a UFO program was being funded, especially over a long period of time, the word would have come out through official channels. The Golden Rule is preeminent, “He who has the gold makes the rules.”

In recent decades a new breed of power brokers has emerged. Janine Wedel, a professor at George Mason University, in her recent book Shadow Elite, called them flexians. These flexians move seamlessly from opposing positions of power, from key civilian enterprise into the government bureaucracy and back again. They make the rules, then bend them as they create new organizational structures with personal loyalties never quite assured. Flexible by nature, hence the name; it is often hard to pin down who they really are or what they represent at any given time. Among these flexians are the princes of Wall Street, who then become Treasury secretaries, or they are on the Security and Exchange Commission or enter other positions that control national and international finance. The flexians have re-created a world with the Inverse Golden Rule, “He who makes the rules gets the gold.” If UFOs, with the potential for wealth that they bring, were reposed either inside or outside the government, the flexians would have taken control and capitalized on it. It is they and their colleagues who populate critical legislative and executive administrative positions before moving on to other sectors of the economy. Most important, they always maintain access to the pulse of knowledge and remain positioned to influence the action. When you consider the number of people who would have had access to critical information over a period of more than half a century, the resulting silence on UFO matters does not make sense.

Personal Interest Versus Institutional Responsibility

Another public misperception is confusing expressions of personal interest in any given topic with those of institutional interest and responsibility. This means that just because certain key individuals express a personal interest in UFOs does not mean that their organization accepts responsibility or is involved in studying the phenomena. For organizations in the Executive Branch, senior administrators are bound by laws that describe their roles and responsibilities and restrict what they can and cannot fund. At times conflict emerges within the organization when a senior official interjects his or her personal beliefs—often religious in nature—into administrative decisions such as funding or wording of reports. In recent years such conflicts have become apparent in fields such as health care and the environment.

However, when these conflicts occur, they often make it into the press as the B team leaks the information to news sources that abound and eagerly await any hint of malfeasance. The B team refers to the myriad of career civil servants who make all governmental institutions function. As they sometimes say—rarely overtly—to leaders attempting radical change, “I be (B) here when you come, and I be here when you leave.” Leaking information is a classic tactic for impeding change for things that they do not approve.

Government Employees See UFOs Too

Just like the general population, a known percentage of government employees have had personal observations of what they believe to be UFOs. That constitutes a personal interest. Sometimes they will be in positions to scan files and see what information is held in official files. That still does not mean their organization has an official interest.

The best example of personal versus institutional interest previously mentioned was with the former head of one of the lettered intelligence agencies. He noted that his agency did not have any requirements to collect information about UFOs or to study the topic, despite his personal observation of UFOs that had taken place long before he had assumed the directorship of that agency. His personal conviction that UFOs were real was insufficient to translate into any formal collection requirements for his agency.

While he was the highest ranking official who provided me a firsthand observation, the experience was not unique. Once people became aware of my interest in the topic, it was not uncommon for them to relate personal experiences. As an example, one day while at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on other business, an introduction was made to several agents who wanted to hear about UFOs. Once they seemed comfortable that this topic was taken seriously, two of them described their personal observations. One of those was a daylight sighting in a rural setting at relatively close range. The woman and her partner were driving along when the object appeared over a farmer’s field. It had no wings and did not make any sound that they were able to hear. The incident went unreported as it was not germane to the mission. While it obviously made a mental impression on them, it did not alter their business agenda and does not infer that the CIA as an organization has an official interest.

There are thousands of similar examples in which individuals have had personal sightings of UFOs, yet that have not impacted their work performance. The operative statement would be “Not my responsibility.” It is known that many military pilots have seen UFOs and have made a conscious decision to not go on record, generally for fear of ridicule. Reporting UFO sightings is not career enhancing in any government agency.

It is also a mistake to assume that every inquiry about UFOs made by someone who happens to work in a government position is an indication of official institutional interest. Unfortunately, in several documentaries there are such implications made. The assumption appears to be that if a report goes to an agency through official channels, therefore that organization must be conducting a study of that subject. This has been used in many cases to imply that the U.S. Air Force did not stop investigating UFOs at the end of Blue Book. Remember, there are millions of individuals working for the U.S. Government and they come with a wide variety of beliefs and experiences. Some of them have had personal observations. Like the general public, many government workers are curious about the topic. Contrary to the documentary comments, personal interest or inquiries, or even incidental reports, does not constitute the government officially studying the topic. Far too much is made of such allegations.

Interestingly, official responsibility is not even understood by some of our senior leaders. The case known as the Phoenix Lights will be covered later. It was a major incident and eventually caused Arizona Senator John McCain to make official inquiries. He seemed surprised that both the Air Force and the National Archives stated they don’t investigate UFOs or keep those files. Here the Air Force could have been more prudent in its response, but it frequently insists on self-inflicted wounds rather than being polite and understanding the seriousness with which many people take this subject.

Playing to public sentiment, on a radio program on June 25, 1997, McCain stated that “people saw things and whenever that happens they deserve at least an investigation.” Really? There are many unusual observations that are made every year. What criteria should be used to determine whether or not an investigation needs to be made? As mentioned, the government is a huge bureaucracy and investigations happen for specific purposes. At the moment, UFOs do not have such a requirement. Condon removed that responsibility for them as the Air Force investigates possible threats.

Everything Leaks in Washington

In Washington information is a precious commodity. Especially at the policy level, where knowledge is power, the ability for one-upsmanship is widely employed as a means of getting what one wants, so keeping a secret like UFOs would be difficult. One has only to consider what has leaked in that city to understand how intertwined information and power are. From major scandals such as Watergate to insignificant sexual peccadilloes like President Clinton’s escapade with Monica Lewinsky, within a relatively short time details come spewing forth—often more than you’d care to know. For political purposes Valerie Plame’s position at the CIA was revealed. The warrantless eavesdropping of the NSA became headlines, even though countering terrorism was a critical national priority and information about the project was extremely sensitive.

There is no doubt that inappropriate events occur, but they are usually revealed, often by a whistle-blower like Fred Whitehurst who demonstrated that the famed FBI laboratory could not distinguish bombs from urine. It was Whitehurst whose revelations rocked the foundation of the top forensic laboratory in the country by complaining about shoddy analysis that was sending people to jail. During the Vietnam War The Pentagon Papers were leaked. In the civilian sector, Jeffrey Wigand informed us that the tobacco industry was manipulating the nicotine content of their product and Sherron Watkins became infamous in the demise of Enron.

Added to this volatile mixture are the ever-present reporters who are out to become the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. Many are inexperienced and recklessly blow stories out of proportion. Today uncontrolled bloggers compete with mainstream media to break stories and sometimes engage in questionable procedures. In this age of 24/7 news coverage ethical reporting has become an oxymoron—speed is far more important than accuracy.

Some Secrets Have Held—For a While

It is true that there have been some secrets that have been held over time. Usually, however, some information about the project gets leaked. One of the best examples would be Have Blue, the predecessor to the stealth aircraft. Have Blue was a DARPA project, executed by Ben Rich at the Lockheed Skunk Works. It began in 1976 and the first flight was during December 1977. That ended and a follow-on program, Senior Trend, began. Those programs eventually led to the F-117, which is still erroneously called a stealth fighter, and first operational capability was achieved in October 1983.

Providing the extreme security for the development of the F-117 added at least 15 percent to the overall cost of the project, but it was well worth it. However, flying anything for a long period of time is hard to conceal, even in the vast Nevada deserts. Before long people outside the program were aware that something was in the mill, even if they didn’t know the details. In fact, by 1986, before the F-117 was revealed, Testors, a model company, released a kit called the F-19 based on what they believed was a stealth fighter. Revell joined suit and sold their F-19 model as well.

As one of the most important technological advances in aviation, and with a critical war-winning mission, some information gradually came out and the aircraft was formally declassified when it was used in support of Just Cause, the invasion of Panama. It was on August 1, 2008, just more than thirty years after conceptualization, that the aircraft was retired. The point is that this ultrasecret project went through its entire life cycle in a relatively short period of time. Yet many Americans believe that a project of more interest could remain hidden for so much longer.

The site where the nation’s secret aircraft was developed and tested, Area 51, has become almost mythical, even as the Government was foolishly denying its existence. Area 51 was incorporated into movies such as Independence Day, as well as a host of television productions and computer games. With satellite photos of it available on the Internet it was among the worst-kept secrets in the Department of Defense. Finally, in 2008, the veil was lifted, a bit, and the people who had worked so diligently to protect the nation were allowed to speak publicly for the first time. They were even allowed to call the site Area 51. Those interested can locate many of the stories through their organization called Roadrunners Internationale. Incidentally, several of these members have spoken publicly and discussed the possibility of UFOs being housed, or even flown, at Area 51. While not putting stock in the rumors, they are fully aware of the folklore attendant to their site and find it rather amusing.

Of course there have been a number of whistle-blowers who have come forward regarding UFO tales. Some of them have become relatively famous in the process, at least within UFO circles. The difference between the UFO whistle-blowers and those previously mentioned is that when scrutinized their stories usually fall apart. Few of them turn out to be real, in the sense that they worked where they claimed they did, or had the access they stated. One of the most infamous of those was Bob Lazar, who claimed to have worked at S-4, a secret subterranean element next to Area 51 near Groom Lake. While there he claims he was given access to many technical documents about UFOs and saw the craft in the hangars. The problem comes when Lazar, and others like him, get caught in the details. For Lazar these include bogus claims of advanced degrees from Cal Tech and MIT. Neither institution has a record of him ever attending, but his mediocre academic achievements were located at a junior college in California.

According to Lazar it was Dr. Teller, whom he simply calls “Ed,” that arranged the job for him at Area 51. For the record, I asked Dr. Teller about this and he indicated he had no knowledge of Lazar. Despite possessing minimal technical skills, we are led to believe that his expertise was so important that he instantly bypassed the months to years of background investigations to which we mortals are subjected. Despite overwhelming evidence against him personally and his tale in general, his story was so popular that Revell Toy Company created and sold a UFO model that bore his name. Now there are even rumors that Matt Damon may play Lazar in the movie version of this fairy tale.

Real secrets almost always get revealed—often before they should. In Washington, information manipulation is a fundamental attribute of the game called politics. Awareness of actual contact with extraterrestrials would be a trump card, one irresistible to play at a strategic moment. To think that amoral politicians would withhold the information due to some altruistic sense of loyalty, or just because the UFO topic is so special, is ludicrous.

So Where Would It Be?

As indicated there are several institutions that might have legitimate interest in UFOs. We have explored the most popular one, the Department of Defense. While many will disagree with this statement, there is no big black UFO program there.

The Department of Energy’s Role

The next best bet would be the Department of Energy, as it controls all of the national laboratories and has immense scientific capabilities. Considerable experience at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) suggests that DoE does not have such a program either. What was found while working at LANL very much paralleled the experience in DoD. Again, there were people with both interest and personal observations, but no program. Some of the better-known photographs were made available to interested scientists at LANL as they had access to advanced computing power and photoanalysis capabilities. In all of the known cases, this analysis was done based on the personal interest of the researcher involved.

Some of my friends were among the best and brightest scientists in the world and had been employed at LANL since the early days. These guys knew the original giants of nuclear science personally. Some had even discussed the topic of extraterrestrials with legendary figures such as Italian-born Enrico Fermi. In 1938, at age 37, Fermi received the Nobel Prize in Physics and was later known for the development of the first nuclear reactor. Because of the anti-Semitic edicts of Benito Mussolini he immigrated to the Unites States immediately after accepting that award and was instrumental in the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. For his extensive contribution in nuclear physics, Time magazine named him one of the top twenty scientists and thinkers of the twentieth century.

One of my friends from LANL, who chooses to remains out of the public eye on matters such as UFOs, was present when Enrico Fermi asked his salient question, “So where are they?” He went on to hold the Fermi chair at the lab. That means the chair that Enrico Fermi actually sat in while he worked in the office next door. Fermi, like Sagan after him, had noted the billions and billions of stars, and based on probabilities, believed we should have been contacted by intelligent ETs. That we had not been contacted became known as the Fermi paradox.

The problem that the Fermi paradox raises for those who suggest that we have made contact, or may have recovered alien bodies, is that these most illustrious scientists had no knowledge of any of the interactions claimed by conspiracy theorists. Surely, if we had been in contact with ET, or made the recoveries suggested by Roswell devotees, our most respected scientists like Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller would have been involved and the word would have spread more widely.

Los Alamos and UFOs

Rumors abound regarding underground chambers at Los Alamos that are used to house ET, or store UFO material. In fact, some subterranean facilities do exist there. Many of them are used for storage of nuclear materials—which by their very nature are subject to extremely high security measures. I had two incidents related to claims that these sites were used for ET material. One came as a result of contacts with Bill Moore who is known in UFO circles for exposure of the Majestic 12 documents. These documents will be covered in more detail in Chapter 7. The issue here is specific to underground facilities at LANL. Moore set up a meeting in Gallup, New Mexico. Attending were physicist Hal Puthoff, Congressional aide Scott Jones, and myself. We were to meet with a source who claimed to have been involved in an official UFO project when he was in the U.S. Air Force. While the identities of Puthoff and Jones were known to Moore, I was an unknown. He guessed, incorrectly, that I was an officer from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). In reality I had retired from active duty and was already working at Los Alamos. As I told Moore at the time, I was not with DIA nor had I ever been assigned there.

The “source” gave each of us a rather convoluted story about ET and his involvement in the project. He went into substantial detail about his induction into the program that had taken place at an underground facility at Los Alamos. The numbers of people he suggested were involved in the program were hard to believe. It would have been nearly impossible to keep a secret of that magnitude under wraps for half a century. More important, he described a facility that I knew pretty well. Having recently been in the building he specified, I knew that there were no underground bunkers in that facility. This source also did not know that recently this technical area had been opened for public access. As a cost-cutting measure at the end of the Cold War, many technical areas that had previously been guarded were opened to the public. The fences he described remained in place, but nobody manned the gate. Any civilian visitor could have approached and entered that building. That hardly described a facility that holds the nation’s crown jewels.

Years later a second incident came in an evening phone call from Bob Collins, a retired USAF officer who did know my identity. He also knew that I was working at Los Alamos, but not the exact location of my office. At the time retired Air Force Colonel Jerry Perrizo was the leader of a group identified as IT 6. The nature of the work of that group was very sensitive. It has been publicly identified by LANL as an intelligence technology group but in no way were its efforts related to UFOs. Captain Collins informed me that he thought the underground facilities were located in a remote site known as TA-33. The ironic thing was that I was sitting in my office at TA-33 and was quite familiar with the complex. It is a fairly large technical area and it is restricted from public access. At lunch I routinely went running and had covered most of the complex on foot. There were a few areas that were prohibited to all personnel. That was not because ET artifacts were stored there, but because the areas remained radioactive from some of the previous experiments conducted as early as the Manhattan Project. It was due to the potential exposure to radiation that all workers at the site always wore dosimeter badges that were collected and analyzed monthly. Anyone interested in checking Collins’s claims can access his material that is published on the Internet. Maps clearly identifying TA-33 can also be located via Google Earth. There were some very interesting projects conducted at TA-33, but none of them involved UFOs.

The FAA Does Get Reports—But Sends Them to a Civilian Organization

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was another likely candidate for knowledge of UFOs. After all it does monitor American airspace and has been called by a substantial number of people wanting to report their unexplained observations. It is also a favorite watering hole for UFO researchers who want to validate reports. For the most part, the FAA reports that it did not have contact with the objects in question. But there are surprises.

To clear up one general misperception, the air traffic control radar system works quite differently than military radar systems. For civilian airlines, the system is cooperative. That means that each aircraft has a transponder that is actively sending out a signal. These pilots want to be seen and for the controllers to know their status at all times. The military radars send out signals that bounce off aircraft and the return is measured. Since UFOs operating in civilian airspace are not part of the normal flow of traffic, it is not surprising that they are not tracked by the FAA.

I had personal experience with this agency, albeit via synchronicity. When first assigned to the Pentagon I lived in an apartment complex called Alexandria Knolls West, which was located just off Shirley Highway. One of the people living there was a fine gentleman, Quint Johnson, and he happened to work for the FAA. In fact, at that time Johnson was the deputy to the director of security for the agency. We maintained contact over the years, even after I left the Washington area. Our primary point of discussion regarding work revolved around the lack of security at airports, especially those in foreign countries. Johnson lamented the poor state of affairs, and his office had tried in vain to beef things up. Their primary opponents, believe it or not, were the commercial airline companies. They lobbied hard against any procedures that might raise concerns with passengers. Their emphasis was on moving people as quickly as possible, minimizing contact time between agents and people, and telling them to have a nice flight. Despite years of unheeded efforts to improve airline security, one week after 9/11 he and his boss were designated sacrificial lambs and pushed out of their jobs.

In the mid-1990s I moved to Las Vegas and was working for Bob Bigelow at the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). Bigelow created NIDS to explore two topics: the continuation of consciousness beyond physical death and UFOs. A reported billionaire, Bigelow was in a position to put substantial resources into this research. One of his concerns was the lack of current cases and establishing a process whereby NIDS might gain rapid access when cases were reported. We decided to approach the FAA, as they were a logical agency that was highly likely to be involved in receiving UFO reports.

The first call was to Johnson to arrange a meeting at his D.C. office on Independence Avenue. Johnson was aware of my background in studying phenomenology, but was highly skeptical that his agency might be willing to be involved. He had no information about prior involvement of the FAA, which would indicate that they did not view UFOs as a security matter. Johnson did provide us entrée into the FAA at a reasonably high supervisory level and meetings were arranged.

The key meeting was attended by Bigelow, Colm Kelleher, the Deputy Administrator of NIDS, and me, plus several supervisory personnel from the FAA. Somewhat surprisingly, these FAA representatives were open to discussing the topic. It helped that one of the senior people had come up through the ranks as an air traffic controller. He acknowledged that while in those positions he had encountered reports of UFOs. However, there was no central collection point for those reports and no secret agency to which they had to send the information. Basically, when UFOs were reported nothing happened unless there were special circumstances such as the press asking questions. In assuring the FAA that NIDS was volunteering to be their 911, and that they would not assume any risk or cost, they agreed to assign the responsibility to NIDS 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. It is important to note that interest in the UFO topic was initiated by a civilian company, not the FAA. Like the Air Force, they were happy to have the matter go away.

Maybe Defense Contractors Have It

A popular proposal among conspiracy theorists is that the UFO program was moved either totally outside government control or into some hybrid consortium. According to this theory, at some point in time the decision was made to privatize further development and the recipients were one or more of the large defense contractors.

If one based this rationale only on developments within the past two decades, there would be reason for concern. As indicated, the premature jubilation and expenditure of the peace bonus yielded a dramatic reduction in the size of many government agencies, especially the Department of Defense. With the advent of GWOT, it was quickly apparent that the force structure was totally inadequate to handle the resulting campaigns. The answer was to turn to contractors in numbers previously unheard of. The ratio of military forces to contractors was about one to one. For the surge of 2010 in Afghanistan, more than 60 percent of the force structure was contract labor.

However, it was not just in foreign theaters that contractors prevailed. In almost every top military headquarters there were contractors in sensitive support roles, some reporting directly to the commanders. While there have been contractors in all of our recent wars, never have there been so many holding key positions. In wars past, contractors were brought in as technical representatives to assist in maintenance of the advanced weapons systems that had been bought from the large firms. In GWOT, contractors were everywhere, including being involved in armed engagements.

While budget decisions are left to official government workers, much of the staff work that goes into the development of the POM is done by contractors. This is not to question the loyalty of these people. Many of them held significant positions in the military before they retired and transitioned to defense contractors. For disclosure, I also joined those ranks and went to Afghanistan in 2003. The task was to be an advisor to the senior leadership of the new Afghan National Army. This job should have been assigned to some active duty colonel or general, but the DoD was totally committed, even at that early date.

The point for UFO-watchers is that it would be easier for contractors to move money to such a project given their access to the finance cycle. The reality is that given the funding necessary to conduct GWOT, the resources available for diversion to any project, let alone one regarding UFOs, have been diminished dramatically.

However, there is another problem with the defense contractor/UFO theory—what can be called the “begats.” Industrial downsizing began even before the end of the Cold War. Not only did the personnel system take a beating, so did the requirements to purchase war materiel. In short, there were too many defense contractors competing for an ever-shrinking budget. As a result, major contractors sold off units of their companies, often to previous competitors. Mergers were rampant and it was even suggested that in the end there might only be one company left standing. Within DoD there was serious concern that the cuts were so deep that there might not be adequate competition to maintain lower costs. From a worker standpoint, when you asked a person in the defense industry, he would cite the lineage as his segment of the organization was moved from one company to another, much like the way heritage is described in the Bible.

The mergers included huge companies, as well as acquisition and divestment of subsidiaries. As examples, in 1994 and 1995 Lockheed Corporation merged with Martin Marietta. Northrop merged with Grumman. Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas. Raytheon merged with E-Systems and acquired Hughes, which had already been bought by General Motors. Previously each of these corporations had played a significant role in aerospace development. Of course, part of the merger process is full disclosure of company assets and business records. But it doesn’t stop at our shores. Some of these elements were purchased by foreign-owned companies, which raises another specter—that the technology might be sold to an offshore corporation.

The question to be answered by the conspiracy theorists who would have us believe in a UFO program, with potentially revolutionary technology, is, “How could it remain hidden during the intense investigative processes leading up to a merger?” Further, the notion that a consortium comprised of fierce competitors would somehow place a UFO development project outside of their feeding frenzy seems preposterous. It should also be remembered that any U.S. defense contractor is bound by the laws of this country. If there were work ongoing for any government agency relative to UFOs, they would be responsible to that agency, and ultimately to the President. Of course there exist rumors that suggest some übersecret, extrajudicial consortium is in control of the UFO process or technology. That fails the test of common sense and is simply not believable.

Compared to What?

At the end of the day, when examining the government’s role in UFOs, one must consider the ultimate issue: Compared to what? Where would a topic such as UFOs fit in the hierarchy of issues competing for attention? UFO enthusiasts would rank the matter relatively high. Most of the world would not. From the government’s perspective, funding a UFO program at any amount sufficiently substantial to draw oversight would be extremely hard to justify. Yet conspiracy theorists suggest that is exactly what has happened.

It’s All About Priorities

At every level of government, administrators would have to compare the importance of UFO studies against everything else for which they are responsible. At the national level top issues would include the economy, jobs, health care, ongoing wars, and similar macroscale issues. As noted, for the past two decades the Department of Defense has been under severe budgetary constraints. First they had to contend with the drawdown of force structure based on the hypothesized peace dividend—the fantasy notion that the end of the Cold War meant the end of threats to our security. Then they had to pay for the Global War on Terror, conducted with an underresourced military, and one that has almost eviscerated the machines of war. Vehicles and aircraft that were never designed for fighting in an inhospitable environment for years on end have been nearly worn out and require replacement at a cost of many billions of dollars.

On the personnel side, our troops from all of the services have been committed in combat at a rate unmatched since World War II. In fact, we now have soldiers and marines who have been in combat longer than anyone in that war. This holds true for the reserve components as well. Members of the Army Reserve, National Guard, and Marine Corps Reserve have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan at rates never anticipated.

Those who believe that the DoD has some active program on UFOs must answer where the resources would be coming from to execute it. Conspiracy theorists would have us believe that there are units on standby just waiting to respond to any UFO incident, especially a crash. According to their version of history, this has happened on several occasions, yet the reactions described again fail considerations of rationality.

Many UFO investigators point to JANAP-146 as proof that the U.S. Government still requires sightings to be reported. This notion comes from U.S. Air Force Regulation No. 55-88, signed into effect on May 13, 1966, and has never been rescinded. The regulation is entitled Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings (CIRVIS). There is a very important statement included in this regulation that frequently is ignored by those who purport that a secret program exists. The text states, “Air Force personnel will report by rapid communication procedures all unidentifiable, suspicious, or hostile land, air, or seaborne traffic which—because of its nature, course, or actions—must be considered a threat to the security of the US or Canada” (emphasis added). This requirement is commensurate with the findings of the Condon Report. Since the U.S. Air Force explicitly excludes UFOs as a threat, this regulation does not apply. Contrary to the popular belief, there is no requirement for the Air Force, or commercial pilots, to report UFO sightings.

Dead Alien Recovery Example

One oft-told case stands out as an example worth considering. According to legend, on January 18, 1978, an excitable military policeman shot and killed an alien intruder at Fort Dix, New Jersey. This Army base was contiguous to McGuire Air Force Base. The shooting took place “in the early morning hours,” yet according to the reports, a C-141 transport aircraft arrived at McGuire from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at 7:00 A.M. This C-141 carried a special unit noticeable by their blue berets, and previously unseen before. They brought with them a specialized container that was used to carry the alien’s body back to Wright-Patterson. The alien was described as nonhuman, small, slender, and fitting the description of others found at previous crash sites. As is often reported, the observers were interrogated and threatened with dire consequences should they ever discuss the incident.

Of course the problems with the case are epidemic. First there is a shooting of something (alien or human) that went unreported in official Fort Dix military police or command channels. Next there is the recovery issue. According to the reports, a plane was sent from Wright-Patterson to McGuire Air Force Base in a matter of a few hours. The relatively short flying time is not the problem. It is the logistical planning efforts that fail the test of reason. This scenario depends on a C-141 being on standby, to fly at a moment’s notice to wherever a crash might occur. That means that despite the extraordinary low probability of such an event occurring, it was considered of sufficient priority to dedicate a precious C-141 cargo aircraft to that mission. Most civilians cannot imagine just what such a commitment would infer. Having participated in various Air Force war games, I can state that aviation transportation was always the long pole in the tent in every exercise. The USAF never had enough lift capability, but here we are led to believe that a large cargo plane is reserved for this improbable mission. There is also the problem of the blue beret personnel who were reported on the scene. The reference to the beret is feasible as they were approved for wear by security personnel in 1975. However, this report presupposes that some specially trained security unit is constantly available for UFO missions. The timing suggests a unit on strip alert. To man such a force 24/7 over the decades would mean that thousands of personnel had been briefed. This seems highly unlikely. For this story to be true, one must believe that senior commanders placed UFO recovery as a priority over most other missions.

The Capabilities Paradox: The Government Can’t Get Anything Right—Except UFOs

Disparagement of the effectiveness of government agencies is the standard stuff of jokes. Even our legislators argue about how ineffective the government is at running programs. When opposing a bill that would have a government agency pick up responsibility from the private sector, government ineffectiveness is often used as a scare tactic. This was certainly evident in the 2009–2010 health care debate.

The fact of the matter is that the government does do some things well. The U.S. Postal Service is an example of a large organization that delivers mail service quite efficiently across the nation. Of course they are not perfect, and there are many counterexamples of ineptitude in other agencies. Recent history is replete with failures including their handling of the financial crisis that nearly destroyed the economic system. Travelers will recognize the problems associated with the Transportation Safety Administration. Health issues are raised with inadequate inspection by the Food and Drug Administration.

The capabilities paradox refers to the perceived inability of the U.S. Government to manage things efficiently, except for one distinct area—UFOs. It is this unique area in which the government is perceived as near omniscient, well organized, and highly focused. Many people believe the government can’t secure our borders, especially those with Mexico. However, let a UFO fly by, let alone crash, and the responsible agencies are instantly involved in chasing the intruders or recovering material.

Possibly a better example are the mistakes made by the Intelligence Community. Historically they missed Sputnik, the fall of the Shah of Iran, the Berlin Wall collapse, 9/11, WMDs in Iraq, and can’t locate Osama bin Laden. But their systems supposedly become highly capable when UFOs enter the area. Somehow these apparent incongruities again fail the test of common sense.

FOIA

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted in 1966 to increase transparency of government activities. While certain information was exempt from disclosure, the vast majority of reports were fair game. Among the reasonable exemptions were requests for classified material, trade secrets, and personal privacy matters. FOIA became the tool of choice for UFO investigators and all departments were flooded with requests. In fact, those requests are still coming in today. At one time it was estimated that about half of the FOIA requests concerned UFOs, something the drafters of this law never contemplated. This abuse resulted in drastic measures being taken by several agencies.

By law, an agency has only twenty business days to respond to a request. They are to be handled in a first-in, first-out basis. The agency is required to provide records that exist, but is not expected to generate new reports. Therefore, the person making the request is expected to be clear and concise about the reports they are seeking. In addition, there are fees that can be assessed for the time and materials used to answer a FOIA request. These are usually reserved for requests that take a large amount of effort. Agencies are not required to make inquiries of other agencies that might have the information desired. It is up to the person making the request to address each agency individually.

The reality is that many agencies do not meet the required deadlines. Mostly this is from being overwhelmed with requests and having too few people allocated to responding to the public. Unfortunately, FOIA is generally not seen as a high priority in most departments. As budget cuts have sliced into personnel at all agencies, staffing FOIA offices has experienced an even lower priority. Requests for information derived from classified reports are still more difficult. These requests require security reviews that add to the response time. Routine declassification of documents, while verbally stated as a priority, is currently years behind schedule and a topic of debate by watchdog groups and Congress alike.

There have been quite a few UFO reports released over the years but many of them were highly redacted. Researcher Stanton Friedman has made quite a show over the years of displaying reports that are mostly blacked out to the point that they are useless to the reader. He has rightfully questioned this extensive use of bureaucratic censorship.

For the first years the Intelligence Community agencies attempted to respond to FOIA requests pertaining to UFOs. The volume of requests became unmanageable so a new approach was taken. They banned the intake of new UFO material. Several sources have informed me that the CIA simply put a filter on incoming messages. If UFOs were mentioned, the report was simply deleted. In that manner, the agency could state that they were not holding any UFO reports that had not been released. Today, the CIA has all of their old UFO data accessible on their Web site. You can view it at www.foia.cia.gov/ufo.asp.

Of course this is bad news for people who believe that the CIA in particular is withholding a lot of additional information. They boisterously argue for disclosure, expecting an announcement such as have been carried out by France and the United Kingdom. More on that will be covered later. My guess is that for the most part they would be surprised to learn that the vast majority of the information is already in the public domain.

Summary

There is a huge disconnect between public opinion about the government’s role regarding UFOs and institutional responsibilities. The Defense Department engages in matters of national security and no threat has yet emerged from alien invaders. While most of the public believes in UFOs they do not constitute a voting issue. For them they are more of a curiosity than one of intense emotional concern. From a political perspective, being associated with UFOs brings strongly negative reactions from both the media and constituents. To establish an appropriate priority of UFOs, you must ask, “Compared to what?” What will not be funded in order to conduct UFO research? Jobs, health care, and wars rank far higher in the minds of most Americans.

There are many government employees who have seen UFOs. The important issue is to discriminate between their personal observations and beliefs versus the official responsibilities and positions of the agencies they work for. Then there is the long-term secrecy problem. For UFOs to remain under wraps for so long defies the logic of politicians in general, and Washington in particular.

Finally there is the capabilities paradox that must be explained. How is it that the government can handle this unique subject with such precision, yet bungle so many other complex issues? It is time for common sense to prevail.

Since the President of the United States sits at the apex of the government, it is worth discussing what past Presidents have known about UFOs. The next chapter explores what they have and have not said about the topic.