UFO Whistleblowers
Greg’s post on the strange tale of Jaime Shandera’s involvement in the UFO subject should be considered a cautionary and essential lesson for anyone who has tried (or is contemplating trying) to determine precisely what is known about the subject at an official level.
Indeed, as I know well, any attempt to pull back the veil of secrecy that certainly exists when it comes to UFOs often results in conveniently-placed insider sources coming forward with ufological tales of both wonder and awe. Or are they just tales full of lies and half-truths, designed to push persistent ufologists as far away from the real picture as possible? As Greg noted in his post, with respect to the odd tale of the so-called Yellow Book: [It] may be one more piece of disinformation in a litany of junk that was release to ensnare unsuspecting ufologists and the foreign intelligence agents who preyed on them.
A good article. What I get out of it may be expressed simply as: “ufology is a muddle, a hodgepodge of diverse and conflicting whistleblower testimonies, the validity of which is uncertain.” To this muddle we must add the host of “truth-seekers” who have for the last five decades, or so, taken much of this “testimony” at face value and funneled it into a host of diverse and conflicting portraits of “what’s really going on.”
The question I raise at this point is: to what degree is the coverup angle itself an “artifact” of the above process?
We know that at least some of what appeared to be “deception” on the part of the Air Force projects was simply incompetence, and an ongoing code of secrecy just because that’s the way they do things in the military. Which is not to say that material was not deliberately withheld for reasons other than these. We also know that Keyhoe actively disseminated his belief in an all encompassing and sinister government coverup, and that his thinking, along with the ideas of others, became for many individuals a sort of ufological “world view.”
What I surmise here is a sort of “positive feedback loop.” The Air Force was behaving curiously, and Keyhoe concluded “coverup” and spread it around. Later, Jacobs wrote in The UFO Controversy in America that “…when Keyhoe could not see a clear reason for the Air Force’s actions, he surmised the reason and treated it as a fact…” (paraphrased from memory). Whatever coverup was actually occurring (if any), for whatever reason, was seized upon by Keyhoe and amplified. Thus amplified, this “paranoia” on the part of ufologists came to have bearing on how “investigators” interacted with “whistleblowers.” As Redfern has suggested, whistleblower testimony could be used as a convenient smokescreen for black projects (something akin to Haines assertion that U-2 overflights were responsible for some UFO sightings), making the whistleblower the proverbial “useful idiot.” It could also be distorted to hide whatever UFO information the governement is sitting on, for whatever reason. The NSA asserted it didn’t want to release certain information because that would disclose intelligence channels. Nevertheless, this was fought tooth and nail by ufologists convinced that the material has been withheld for a different reason – to hide what the government knows about UFOs. These researchers operate within the context of the “coverup paradigm.”
So, information filters out of government channels, is seized by ufologists, who chew on it, surmise and speculate about, draw conclusions about it, write books about it. This in turn has bearing on what further information comes out of the governement, which is again seized and chewed upon…and so on, ad infinitum
With this potential for information distortion, the coverup angle itself could be “worked” for various purposes. Smokescreens for smokescreens. Coverup myths nurtured so as to coverup coverups of coverups. 😐
So much speculation, so many surmises, so many conclusions based on tenuous connections, so many books printed, with inclusive, or mutually exclusive takes on what’s going on here, so many showmen and attention seekers, so many starry-eyed adherents who are even quicker to believe than some of the ufologists who came before them. I don’t see how we’ll ever make sense of it.
On that cheery note…
Best,
RDB
The question I raise at this point is: to what degree is the coverup angle itself an “artifact†of the above process?
The Odd Emperor’s answer? Probably most of it. I think there is a conspiracy all right. Call it, a conspiracy of ignorance.
But, military organizations always behave that way! They must in order to successfully prosecute the enemy. Very often the enemy is the public at large. Not because the military is directly fighting them–the public is unable to keep secrets and in today’s environment, with the advent of expanding communication medias (like the Internet,) military organizations have to play much closer to the vest then they did only a few years ago.
More than you might think. I’m convinced that the government has perpetrated hoaxes from time to time and there are very good reasons why they would do this. There are also some very good reasons why intelligence people would skulk around Ufologests and feed them bullcrap. Always remember that the key to to keeping secrets is controlling information. the key to controlling information is giving the people who disseminate information the “right” information.
I think in this light that it’s no surprise that Ufologests are occasionally approached by military people and led astray.
But, military organizations always behave that way! They must in order to successfully prosecute the enemy.
Exactly. And I don’t think there’s anyone who would argue that official smokescreens, particularly in wartime (thinking of WWII here, and NOT this current debacle, or another notable debacle which preceded it by several decades) are essential to “successful prosecution of the enemy.” Thing is, because of the importance of keeping secrets, this has understandably become a military mindset, propelling the official hand that applies the official red stamp and the official black ink, to things that are classified because…well, that’s just the way that things are done.
It’s not really my inclination to criticize the Air Force UFO projects for trying to put a lid on on what they were doing in that little office at Wright-Patterson; if I were trying to make sense of the UFO mania (or just trying to squelch something that appeared to be getting out of hand) that seized this country in the wake of Arnold’s “landmark” sightings, I wouldn’t want Donald Keyhoe getting up in my face, either. On the other hand, I’m not particularly inclined to defend the Air Force’s projects, as they were hardly “major investigative” efforts, lacking both the personnel and resources (I’m thinking of Capt. Ed Ruppelt’s lament, while trying to take care of business in Washington: “Nine dollars a day per diem and I should pay for a hotel room, meals, and taxi fares all over the District of Columbia…”) to deal with the barrage of reports. Whether they were serious about the project (as Ruppelt was) or not (as Quintanilla probably was not).
As for the official secrecy that came out of the UFO projects. We are in agreement that this is just the way the military does things. This is probably even more extreme, now, with all the paranoia about terrorism, and, of course, the ongoing matter of cleaning up the turds of the Commander-in-Chief, which keep fouling up the corridors.
Although I have little doubt that the “UFO sightings” over Iran serve, by default, as a convenient smokescreen for drone overflights. No official disclaimers necessary, no explanations or denials. Just leave it up to the ufo community: “Golly Gosh and Goofin’ Whillikers, there’s UFOs over Iran!”
But Redfern’s scalp is his worst enemy.