Wikileaks has once again shaken the foundations of the government and military establishment with its mass leaking of documents chronicling the war in Afghanistan.The leaking of more than 92,000 secret documents to the media last week revealed how difficult it now is for any government - however powerful - to conceal information from the public.
With near impregnable security for its servers and twin commitment to holding authority to account and protecting its sources, Wikileaks has become a haven for whistleblowers to expose lies, corruption and human rights abuses wherever they occur.
But here is the conundrum. Many thousands, if not millions of people across the world, believe the US Government is with-holding evidence that we are not alone in the universe. A central item of this belief is that a flying saucer and its occupants crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 and the authorities have concealed that fact for over 60 years.
If there is any truth in these stories hundreds, if not thousands, of people must have been involved in the perpetuation of the cover-up. Foreign governments, such as the Soviet Union during the Cold War, would have learned about the incident and would, therefore, have to be party to the secret. Again, many many people across the world must have been involved in perpetuating the greatest conspiracy in the history of mankind.
So - where are the UFO whistleblowers?
As Greg Boone, who believes in the existence of a global UFO cover-up, asked plaintively on a newsgroup recently: "Why has not one major UFO secret been revealed via Wikileaks?"
He went on to add: "Surely the truth regarding UFOs would so shake the foundations of global criminal evil that just one brave soul would come forward and forever change the history of humanity."
Well Greg, we're waiting...and waiting...and waiting.
Of course there have been plenty of hoaxes and forgeries that have been proclaimed as proof positive of the alien presence in the past. But the amateurish MJ-12 papers that were supposed to have been created by a super-secret US committee that concealed the Roswell incident would not pass the first test of authenticity when placed under the Wikileaks microscope.
While we wait, my colleague and fellow Fortean Times writer Mark Pilkington has published his own in-depth excoriation of the murky world of military intelligence involvement in the UFO phenomenon.
Mirage Men: A Journey in Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs is published by Constable this month and comes highly recommended. Mark's central thesis - that intelligence agencies have been promoting the idea of UFOs as a useful cover for their own covert testing of military technology - is not entirely original. But Mark is no armchair theorist and he and sidekick John Lundberg developed their new take on 'the federal hypothesis' during a long journey through the badlands and backwaters of America, meeting some of the key players in the UFO industry along the way.
Unlike many books with 'UFO' on their cover, Mirage Men is a gripping read.Whether you agree with Mark's conclusions or not, you will enjoy the journey and come to realise that the closer you get to the source of UFO stories the more the whole phenomenon takes on a mythic dimension.
While Mirage Men chronicles the phenomenon in North America, Andy Robert's new book takes a withering look at one of the UK's central UFO legends.
UFO Down (published by the CFZ early in August) is subtitled The Berwyn Mountain UFO Crash and investigates the facts and folklore surrounding a mysterious incident that occurred in North Wales one night in January 1974. The Berwyn incident has been described by the some as 'Britain's Roswell' and Andy has spent the past two decades tracing every possible permutation of the legend to its source. As an exercise in investigative journalism, his journey takes some beating and the conclusions may surprise those who expect a thorough debunking of this particular story.
Both Mirage Men and UFO Down are fine pieces of writing and I urge everyone remotely interested in Fortean phenomena to add them to their reading list.
There are two issues here - first, if Wikileaks HAS received info regarding UFOs and ET relationships, are they willing to publish them, or do they fear that they are being duped? Secondly, and more importantly, the real information regarding relations with ETs and UFOs doesn't reside with DOD or CIA it is closely held, and likely not written down, with the Powers That Be. There isn't any huge cache of classified documents describing our relationship with ET beings and the agreements/contracts that the PTB has made with them. If ALL classified documents regarding UFOs and ETs were really published, there would be grave disappointment with the lack of real substance (except with a few black programs that are not likely to be included). What we would get, is loads of UFO reports like the ones that we have been getting from the UK and various other countries. The Crown Jewels of ET relations just don't reside in some DOD classified archive somewhere. We are barking up the wrong tree!
ReplyDeleteBut we have been told for decades that zillions of classified UFO documents reside in the archives of bodies such as the CIA or the MOD. Now we are told they probably don't exist as documents but instead reside mostly in the heads of the 'Powers that Be'. And who precisely are these 'Powers that be'? Any bright ideas?
ReplyDeleteBut there have been whistleblowers. You just ignored them. When Gordon Cooper (Mercury astronaut) testified he saw an alien ship land on tripod gear and take off, everyone said "Meh... so what?" and clicked onto the next Britney Spears Youtube meltdown.
ReplyDeleteCompartmentalized - the undeniable data is very very restricted and only a select few know a great deal about anything. Most of the data is broken into the smallest practical bits and dissemmanated for analysis amongst persons with high security classifications.
ReplyDeleteThey don't just toss a cd full of the goodies to every low level twenty something analyst that walks into the lounge. People have died over this stuff, apparently it is taken very seriously by somebody.
I think we can discard the UFO element from the question. In a sense, it's a red herring. Rather than asking where the UFO leaks are, with the implication that there isn't anything to leak, I'd ask where are any of the leaks?
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me as odd that we have a great forum for leaks and a safe process for whistleblowers and yet there's very little being brought out. Are the CIA (for example) no longer interested in the drugs trade? Has corruption left the corridors of power? Are their no more shady East/West deals in the international arms trade? Have western corporations stopped exploiting Third World child labour and abandoned price-fixing practices?
I could go on, but I'm guessing I've made my point? The absence of UFO leaks is meaningless when we realise how little of anything is being leaked. The reasons for such a dearth of whistleblowers are likely too many to list. Some are probably very reasonable too!
Ultimately, it's rather a shame that even when given a platform and a veil of secrecy, honourable men and women don't feel inclined to cry 'foul!'
"Ultimately, it's rather a shame that even when given a platform and a veil of secrecy, honorable men and women don't feel inclined to cry 'foul!'"
ReplyDeleteThat is so true.
However, I think that people who try to expose anything related to the ET question will automatically be regarded as suspect as well, so their information may not be taken seriously.
As someone who has been a whistleblower from within the UFO field, in regard to Dr. David Jacobs' abuse of his research subjects (myself included), I know how hard it is to be heard on UFO related topics, especially if you are perceived (rightly or wrongly) as a "believer" yourself, regardless of how much supporting evidence you provide (and I provided substantial supporting evidence.) I found that only a few honorable people were prepared to address it, and speak out about it, while the rest ("believers" and "skeptics" alike) maintained a deafening silence. It was educational.
So, I can understand why it is possible that there are people who know about government knowledge of the phenomenon (if that is the case) but who decide to let it go and avoid a lot of trouble for themselves.
Interestingly, the "cover-up" of the UFO phenomenon appears to extend to "believers" themselves.
Budd Hopkins and Leslie Kean have both been active in criticizing the government for covering up what it knows about UFOs. However, Dr. David Jacobs told me personally during a hypnosis session that he conducted with me (he recorded all the sessions and gave me the tapes, so I have it on tape) that he gave both Leslie Kean and Budd Hopkins a transcript of an instant messaging conversation that he had with an alien “hybrid” in mid 2006.
Obviously, Dr. Jacobs having an instant messaging conversation with an alien “hybrid” is the most monumental development in all of human history. However, for some reason, neither Budd Hopkins nor Leslie Kean has made this transcript public.
I personally believe that the “hybrid” instant messaging was a hoax. However, I have been subjected to wholesale defamation by Dr. Jacobs, in concert with Budd Hopkins, for saying this publicly, and for exposing the sad circumstances surrounding this hoax.
What is sadder still, in my opinion, is that the reason that both Budd Hopkins and Leslie Kean are withholding this historically important document from the public is because, like me, they know that it is a hoax. However, in my opinion, they have chosen instead to cover it up, in order to keep a lid on Dr. Jacobs’ associated misconduct. This appears to include trying to bury the whistleblower.
So, it seems as though there are often “political” considerations in these things as well.
> Gordon Cooper testified he saw an alien ship land...
ReplyDeleteUntrue.
Cooper did not see an alien ship land and does not even claim to have seen it first-hand. He was told by an air force film crew they had filmed a UFO. It's right in his autobiography, pages 82-3, yet the true believers seem not to have checked Cooper's own statement, they just repeat the distortion.
But it gets worse.
Cooper's retelling of what the crew saw goes WAY beyond what they reported to the government. (He also claims to have been their supervisor, which is untrue.) Their modest report of a balloon-like object was reported in the papers of the time and investigated by James McDonald, who reported the crew's version to Congress in 1968.
http://www.nicap.org/edwards570502mcd.htm
But what version do true believers retell and retell these days? The distorted, second-hand one, never the original report.
Cooper has made other false claims about the incident, including what happened to the film crew evidence for this sighting. He says he saw it but now it's missing. James Oberg has seen it in the Blue Book files -- it supports the crew report and is nothing like Cooper's description.
http://www.cohenufo.org/Oberg/isogc_ufos2.htm
But, of course, facts and research are not important to the true believers: just copy-and-paste juiced up hearsay and shout "conspiracy."