Petition, UFOs, White House and Lies

By Stanton T. Friedman

I would love to have been a fly on the wall when personnel of the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the Executive Office of the President at the New Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., discussed how to respond to a petition about disclosing data on UFOs. I suspect that nobody brought up the enormous amount of information available indicating that not only are aliens visiting, but the US and other government have been withholding information for many decades. The response certainly indicates intentional lying and misrepresentation or total ignorance.

The petition, prepared and submitted by Steve Bassett’s Paradigm Research Group, went like this:

I, for one, was not one of more than 5000 persons signing the petition. My reason was straightforward. Having worked under security for 14 years and having researched the flying saucer phenomenon (certainly most UFOs are NOT alien flying saucers) for 53 years, I believe there is a very strong national security side to the question. I cannot see releasing technical data that could be of use to other countries also researching the phenomena and wanting to duplicate the extraordinary flying capabilities of the flying saucers… for military purposes.

The response was issued by research assistant Phil Larson. He stated “The US government has no evidence that (1) any life exists outside our planet or (2) that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition (3) there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye.” No indication is provided as to just what sources, if any, were evaluated. Furthermore, a real red herring was provided: “There are a number of projects working toward the goal of understanding if life can or does exist off Earth.” He then discusses SETI, The Kepler Spacecraft, the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity), soon to be launched to Mars. None of these have anything to do with the extraterrestrial presence here, the petition’s topic!! Why mention them?

Larson generously concedes that “The odds are pretty high that somewhere among the trillions and trillions of stars in the universe there is a planet other than ours that is home to life.” Odds cannot be determined when there is no data. He also foolishly states that “The odds of making contact with any of them — especially any intelligent ones — are extremely small given the distances involved.” To which distances is he referring, billions of light years to very distant galaxies?? Or 39.3 light years to Zeta Reticuli? Where is any data to support these totally baseless claims? Does he have travel schedules for civilizations outside Earth? Surely the astronomical community knows nothing about interstellar travel. More about evidence below, but let us first look at (3).

No credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public? Is he really unaware of the many TOP SECRET UMBRA CIA UFO documents that have been released so heavily redacted that many pages say “Deny in Toto” or that many others are blacked out except for fewer than eight words. Is he really unaware that because of a FOIA court case, the NSA has admitted finding 156 TOP SECRET UMBRA UFO documents. When finally released, one could read about one sentence per page with the rest being whited out. The excuse for redaction was that it is illegal to release sources and methods information. It is absurd to suggest that more than 95% of these UFO documents consisted of sources and methods information. Federal Court Judge Gerhard Gesell agreed the documents should not be released. “The Public interest in disclosure is far outweighed by the potential danger to the security of the United States should this information be released,” he wrote.

Is Larson really unaware of the following 1969 statement by USAF General Carroll Bolender asked to decide Project Blue Book’s future: “Reports of UFOs which could affect national security are made in accord with JANAP 146 or Air Force Manual 55-11 and are not part of the Blue Book system….Termination of Blue Book would leave no official federal office to receive reports of UFOs . However, as already stated, reports which could affect national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose.” When BB was closed as a result of Bolender’s memo and for more than 40 years since, the public has been falsely told there was no government concern with UFOs. This was a flat-out lie. As late as 2011 there were official regulations in place instructing military pilots how to reports UFOs. Where is all this data? No evidence being hidden???

Since 1969 the public has been told (1) “No UFO reported, investigated and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security.” (2) “There has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as unidentified represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge” and (3) “There has been no evidence that sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ are extraterrestrial vehicles.” Skillfully constructed lies and deception!! What if any other agency such as the navy, CIA, NSA, DIA, NRO, ONI, Majestic 12, etc had done the reporting, investigating, or evaluating? I worked on programs such as nuclear fusion propulsion for star travel (at great cost) way back in 1961. If there was no threat to national security, why were military pilots officially ordered in 1952 to shoot down UFOs if they did not land when instructed to do so? Why did an AF general state that more than 300 jets had been scrambled?

No evidence being hidden? Then why did Secretary of the Air Force Donald Quarles make the following statement in a very widely distributed press release, on October 25, 1955, about a large study concerning UFOs. “On the basis of this study, we believe that no objects such as those popularly described as flying saucers have overflown the United States. I feel certain that even the Unknown 3% could have been explained as conventional phenomena or illusions if more complete observational data had been obtained.” That the two supposedly factual statements (“3% Unknowns,” “incomplete observational data”) are bald-faced LIES is easily demonstrated. The data are compiled from “the study” whose title was NOT given in the press release (“Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14”) and which was not distributed, though the press release got very wide coverage.

Nothing Hidden?? The Unknowns comprised 21.5% of the 3201 cases investigated by Battelle Memorial Institute (NOT 3%!!) whose identity was not given in the press release. Of great importance is that there was a separate category listed as Insufficient Information comprising 9.3% of the cases. By definition no case could be listed as an Unknown if there was insufficient information despite Quarles’s lie. A statistical cross comparison between Unknowns and Knowns showed that the probability that the Unknowns were just missed Knowns was less than 1%. It was also found that the better the quality of a sighting the MORE likely to be listed as an Unknown. Nothing Hidden? Surely you are joking, Mr. Larson.

There were also many lies in the two huge reports about Roswell. One ridiculous one was even blindly accepted by the New York Times and appeared on the front page of the Sunday edition above the fold. Reports of bodies associated with the Roswell case were supposedly the results of observations of crash test dummies dropped all over New Mexico. Two very serious problems with this lie are that no dummies were dropped until 1953 (six years after Roswell) and that all were 6’ tall, weighed 175 pounds (just like pilots) and were in uniforms influencing drag and heating on the way down. There is no possible way even including time travel that they could have morphed into skinny creatures under 5’ tall with big heads and big eyes. Nothing Hidden???

Mr. Larson could have benefitted by consulting two other official US government reports besides “Blue Book Special Report 14: Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects: Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, House of Representatives July 29, 1968.” This includes testimony from 12 scientists — all but one, myself, with PhDs. One finds multiple witness radar visual cases, sightings by astronomers and other scientists. There was also the half-million-dollar University of Colorado study (usually called “The Condon Report”) done for the USAF. A special UFO subcommittee of the world’s largest group of Space scientists, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, reported that 30% of the 117 cases studied in detail could not be identified. There was also the Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 case of Nov. 16, 1986, which involved ground and air radar and airborne witnesses. The FAA radar installation’s data was confiscated by the government. The object was twice the size of an aircraft carrier. Nothing Hidden, Mr. Larson?

Benefit might also be obtained by reviewing the extensive files of NARCAP (National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena) which include loads of sightings by pilots. These are men entrusted to fly civilian and military aircraft carrying loads of people. Many outstanding cases are in Leslie Kean’s “UFOs: General, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record.” These cannot be ignored.

Larson talks about evidence. One would think he would mention the literally thousands of physical trace cases from all over the world collected by researchers such as Ted Phillips. He says “no contact with any member of the human race.” Perhaps he should read Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. A great deal of the testimony was obtained by psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Simon. He had been a colonel in the army entrusted with directing a 3000 bed hospital treating shell shock war veterans. He was chosen by the army to star in their movie Let There be Light about his successful treatment of these early sufferers from PTSD. He had stated that the emotional intensity of the Hills as they relived portions of their abduction experience was every bit as emotional as that of his many military patients.

What we have here is a travesty against the public, the press, and those many witnesses who have come forth. There is a classic example of bait and switch. Try to redirect attention from aliens visiting (the subject of the petition along with concerns about cover-up) to hypothetical meaningless talk of what might be way out there for which there is no basis at all. If the discussion were in a court of law, Larson would have to be convicted of perjury.

The post Petition, UFOs, White House and Lies first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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However, in the process of looking into the project name that was given to me, I received an intriguing response from the United States Air Force that will forever be a mystery (unless ‘disclosure’ in 2025 proves me wrong) – but I feel it’s worth a mention.

Could this be a mistake by the Air Force? Possibly!

And admittedly, most likely.

But now, almost two decades later, I have learned the military and the government don’t make many assumptions on FOIA requests, so a “mistaken assumption” on my inquiry would make this one of the only cases they actually did that with me.  And to date, I have filed well more than 5,000 FOIA requests.

So take that for what it’s worth – and here you go.

Background

Originally published in 1997:

Running an internet web site, I get many pranksters, jokers, and liars that write to me and tell me they are from the government, or they are going to kill me, or other ridiculous claims, but there have been a few where it made me think, “Maybe this one is for real.”

I got a letter from an anonymous source, and by their request, I will call him “Benjamin.” Now, “Benjamin” wrote me in regards to The Black Vault, and a posted photograph of an alleged aircraft called “Snowbird.”  

For those who are not familiar with this photograph, it is a supposed alien aircraft, and the picture is the craft mounted on top of a pylon, possibly at a Lockheed plant or even Area 51.

Now, “Benjamin” told me that this was an X-151 aircraft from Project Torridor. “Benjamin” went on to say that you would never get a picture of an alien aircraft in the daylight.

“Benjamin” worked for the National Reconnaissance Office. He relayed to me that all “Black Projects” are compartmentalized, that way no agency can really know what the other is doing.

He went on to tell me a bit about a base in New Mexico, in a mountain called “Baldy.” The base is 200 feet deep, and 30 acres square.

There are 1,500 from another world working there. They come from a dead planet in the Cygnus Ra Star System. “Benjamin” worked there, and gave me the exact coordinates: 21hours 13minutes 52seconds D33 degrees 10′.

The aliens, in exchange for us giving them a place to live, they will help us advance to join some kind of an alliance of planets. They hope that we will be ready by the year 2025.

This is where Project Tobacco comes in. Project Tobacco is a project to get the public ready for this event. It is done through movies, media, books, television, and magazines.

Project Tobacco was given it’s name because if anybody else would find out about it, it would burn up like Tobacco. So, on December 09, 1997, I wrote a Freedom of Information Act request to the United States Air Force, and also to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which “Benjamin” told me was part of the project.

I received two letters back, both dated December 29, 1997. The first was just an acknowledgment receipt. The second, was a letter starting off saying “This office is not a repository for UFO information.”

It went on to give me information on UFOs and Project Blue Book, and they attached a Fact Sheet on UFOs, a page I have been given many times.

Confused, I checked back to my letter, wherein I did not mention UFOs at all. No mention of aliens or flying saucers or anything that would spark a response like that, NOTHING.

Was this a goof-up? I went back to “Benjamin” who was very surprised I got this response. Wright Patterson is still to respond, but what will I get, if anything, from them? Now I am getting very interested, possibly “Benjamin” is telling the truth. Or maybe the Air Force did goof-up, but maybe they just figured I was talking about UFOs? Highly unlikely, because not all my requests to them deal with UFOs.

Now, I am going to do an excerpt out of one of “Benjamin”‘s letters, because I figure if I paraphrase it, I will just get the information mixed up. So here it is:

“I worked on the Gravity Catapult. Einstein General Theory has a number of similarities to the Maxwell theory of electromagnetism. In electromagnetism, the basic source of all the forces is the charge in the electron. The charge generates an electric field. If you move the charge to form an electric current, the current generates a magnetic field. If you increase or decrease a magnetic field, that hanging magnetic field in turn generates an electric field. The same thing happens in gravity. The basic source of all the forces is the mass of whatever particles you are using. The mass generates a gravity field. If you move the particles to form a mass current, the current generates a new field that is the gravitational equivalent of the magnetic field. (an anti-gravity engine). We have it, have had it for several years now and I worked on it. Why do you think NASA is slowly trying to down-size. They keep calling for smaller cheaper engines and so forth. They know that the present form of space-flight as well as transportation here on Earth is about to change. They don’t want to waste the money…but they have to or everyone will wonder why. The use millions of dollars of tax-payer money on useless stuff! This engine uses no fuel, has no sound and can never break. Since it uses gravitational fields for motion…as long as you have gravity, the engine will work.”

The above letter came from the Department of the Air Force Headquarters in the Pentagon. I had also sent the FOIA request to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, as “Benjamin” told me they were taking part in the project. After a few ‘extension letters’ requesting more time to process my request, I received the following:

Is this information real? Did the United States Air Force Headquarters make a huge mistake by referencing UFOs on a Project Tobacco FOIA request?

Comment below – and share your thoughts!

The post Project Tobacco – Anonymous Tip Turns Into Possible Confirmation of “UFO Disclosure” Project first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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I-Team: Clinton aide seeks UFO files

By George Knapp , Matt Adams | madams@8newsnow.com

Several U.S. presidents are on the record, talking about the UFO mystery. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan say they had UFO sightings of their own, but the current presidential campaign might be the first in which UFO disclosure has been championed by a major party candidate.

During a recent campaign stop in Las Vegas, the campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told Politics NOW co-host Steve Sebelius that Clinton will try to get to the bottom of the UFO question.

John Podesta has always been a strong advocate for declassification of government files in general and UFO files in particular.

“I think the American people can handle the truth about this,” he said.

As White House Chief of Staff for former President Bill Clinton, Podesta helped declassify hundreds of millions of documents. If there were UFO secrets being held somewhere, however, they eluded even the president.

Podesta returned to the White House as a special advisor to President Barack Obama. On the day he left the job, he sent out a Tweet saying his biggest disappointment was the failure to find and uncover the UFO files.

These days, Podesta has the ear of another potential president; he’s running the campaign for Hillary Clinton. He made it clear to Sebelius that the UFO question has been discussed.

“I’ve talked to Hillary about that. It’s a little bit of a cause of mine, which is, people really want to know what the government knows, and there are still classified files that could be declassified,” he said.

It wasn’t an offhand remark. Podesta has encouraged journalists to ask his candidate about UFOs, and a few have done so. Mrs. Clinton told a New Hampshire newspaper that she intends to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery, thinks it is possible the planet may have been visited and would consider creating a task force to investigate Nevada’s Area 51 military base. The base became a center of UFO attention more than 25 years ago because of reports that aired on KLAS-TV.

CNN characterized Mrs. Clinton’s remarks as jokes, but Podesta makes it clear that he and his candidate are serious.

“I think I’ve convinced her that we need an effort to kind of go look at that and declassify as much as we can, so that people have their legitimate questions answered,” he said. “More attention and more discussion about unexplained aerial phenomena can happen without people who are in public life, who are serious about this, being ridiculed.”

The Clintons know first-hand how the UFO topic invites ridicule. Many people may remember the frequent tabloid headlines during the Clinton presidency with titles such as “Hillary Adopts Alien Baby” or “Space Alien Endorses Bill.”

More recently, conspiracy theorists have suggested there are UFO secrets hidden in Mrs. Clinton’s private e-mails. It comes with the territory.
“I come in for my fair share of people asking questions about whether I am off my rocker, but I’ve been a long-time advocate of declassification of records,” Podesta said.

Huffington Post writer Lee Speigel has followed the UFO debate since the late 1970s. He notes that Podesta has been way out in front on UFO disclosure in speeches at places like the National Press Club.

“It’s time to open the books,” Podesta told the club.

“He ended one of his speeches by saying, not only could the public handle it, but we should do it because it’s the law,” Speigel said.

In the mid-1990s, billionaire Laurence Rockefeller lobbied the Clintons to end UFO secrecy. Mrs. Clinton was photographed with Rockefeller while holding a book titled, “Are We Alone? The Implications of Discovery of ET Life.”

Bill Clinton has made public statements confirming that he tried to get to the bottom of UFO issues while in office.

“First thing I did is send people to Area 51 to see if there were any aliens there,” he told late night host Jimmy Kimmel.

The government’s interest in UFOs officially ended with the closure of Project Blue Book in 1969, but suspicion remains that unexplained encounters involving national security are still being studied by someone.

Podesta suspects someone is holding on to a large cache of UFO files. Speigel says several whistleblowers have surfaced over the years, including the late lunar astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, who say secrets are still being kept.

“There’s military people coming forward now saying, ‘Yeah, the government never did stop investigating UFOs,’ and we need to own up to that,” Speigel said.

“We can see what’s going on here in Nevada,” Podesta said.

Mrs. Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, was also asked about UFOs. He said he is far more interested in issues that are more pressing for most Americans.

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