Summary: The evidence regarding this subject is clear and overwhelming: It has not been difficult to make a compelling case for the reality of UFOs per se. What is a greater challenge is elucidating the architecture of secrecy related to UFOs (see the exposition of this matter contained in the paper entitled “Unacknowledged” by this author). But the greatest challenge is explaining the ‘why’. Why all the secrecy? Why a ‘black’ or unacknowledged government within the government? Why hide the UFO/ET subject from public view?
Over the past few years I have had the responsibility of briefingsenior government and scientific leaders both in the US and abroad on the UFO/Extraterrestrial subject.
The evidence regarding this subject is clear and overwhelming: It has not been difficult to make a compelling case for the reality of UFOs per se. What is a greater challenge is elucidating the architecture of secrecy related to UFOs (see the exposition of this matter contained in the paper entitled “Unacknowledged” by this author). But the greatest challenge is explaining the ‘why’. Why all the secrecy? Why a ‘black’ or unacknowledged government within the government? Why hide the UFO/ET subject from public view?
The ‘what’ or evidence is complex but manageable. The ‘how’ or nature of the secret programs is more difficult, much more complex and Byzantine. But the ‘why’ – the reason behind the secrecy’- is the most challenging problem of all. There is not a single answer to this question, but rather numerous inter-related reasons for such extraordinary secrecy. Our investigations and interviews with dozens of top – secret witnesses who have been within such programs have enabled us to understand the reasons behind this secrecy. They range from the fairly obvious and straight-forward to the really bizarre. Here, I wish to share some key points regarding this secrecy, why it has been imposed and why it is so difficult for the controlling interests within covert programs to reverse policy and allow disclosure.
In The Beginning
In the early days of the ET/UFO phenomena, military, intelligence and industrial interests had concerns regarding the nature of the phenomena, whether it originated from our human adversaries and once it was determined to be extraterrestrial, how the public would react.
In the 1930s and 1940s this was no small matter: If these UFOs were of terrestrial origin, they would be evidence of an earthly adversary with technological devices far in advance of US aircraft. And once it was determined to be extraterrestrial (some quarters knew this prior to the end of WWII) there were many more questions than answers. To wit: why were the ET s here? What are their intentions? How do the devices travel at such fantastic speeds and through the vastness of space? How might these technologies be applied to the human situation -both in war and in peace? How would the public react to this knowledge? What effect would the disclosure of these facts have on human belief systems? Political and social systems?
From the late 1940s through the early 1950s, a concerted effort was made to figure out the basic science and technologies behind these spacecraft, primarily through the direct study and reverse-engineering of the retrieved extraterrestrial objects from New Mexico and elsewhere. It was immediately recognized that these objects were using laws of physics and appliedtechnologies far in advance of internal combustion engines, vacuum tubes and the like. In the climate of the Cold War and in a world where a relatively minor advantage technologically could tilt the balance of power in the nuclear arms race, this was no small matter.
Indeed, the theme of human geo-political dysfunction appears as a recurring feature of the secrecy related to UFOs – up to the present hour. More on this later.
From the Wilbur Smith top secret Canadian government document of 1950, we know that this subject was held in greater secrecy than even the development of the hydrogen bomb. There was a tremendous effort underway by the late 1940s to study extraterrestrial hardware, figure out how it operated and see what human applications might be made from such discoveries. Even then, the project dealing with this subject was extraordinarily covert.
It became much more so by the early 1950s when substantial progress was made on some of the basic physics behind the ET craft energy and propulsion systems. The best we can estimate, it was then that the entire project became increasingly ‘black’ or unacknowledged.
The compartmentalization of the project dealing with UFOs was exponentially increased by the early 1950s when it was realized what it was that these covert projects actually had: Devices displaying physics and energy systems which – if disclosed – would forever alter life on earth.
By the Eisenhower era, the UFO/ET projects were increasingly compartmented away from legal, constitutional chain-of-command oversight and control. This means that -while we know from witness testimony that Eisenhower knew of the ET craft – the president ( and similar leaders in the UK and elsewhere) were increasingly left out of the loop. Such senior elected and appointed leaders were confronted with (as Eisenhower called it) a sophisticated military-industrial complex with labyrinthine compartmented projects which were more and more out of their control and oversight. From direct witness testimony we know that Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton were frustrated by their attempts to penetrate such projects.
This is also true of senior congressional leaders and investigators, foreign leaders and UN leadership. This is indeed an equal opportunity exclusion project – it does not matter how high your rank or office, if you are not deemed necessary to the project, you are not going to know about it. Period.
Contrary to popular myth, since the 1960s concern over some type of public panic when faced with the fact that we are not alone in the universe has not been a major reason for the secrecy. Those in the know -notwithstanding the fantastic tales spun in UFO circles and on the X-Files -understand that fear of hostile ET s has also not been a significant factor. While there has been continued confusion in some covert circles over the ultimate purpose behind the ET phenomena, we know of no knowledgeable insiders who regard the ET s as a hostile threat.
By the 1960s – and certainly by the 1990s – the world was very familiar with the concept of space travel and the popular science – fiction industry had thoroughly indoctrinated the masses with the idea of ET s from far away being a possibility. So why the continued secrecy?
The Cold War is over. People would hardly be shocked to find out that we are not alone in the universe ( the majority of people already believe this – in fact most people believe the UFOs are real). Besides, what could be more shocking than to live through the latter half of the 20th century with thousands of hydrogen bombs aimed at every major city in the world? If we can handle that, surely we can handle the idea that ET s are real.
The facile explanations of fear, panic, shock and the like do not suffice to justify a level of secrecy so deep that even the President and his CIA Director could be denied access to the information.