Why, despite all the evidence, including an impressive number of first-hand witness reports world-wide, does there still appear to be an official conspiracy to hide the truth about UFOs and their extraterrestrial origins from the public?    By David Calvert

On December 17th, 1969, the United States Air Force (USAF), along with Project Blue Book, officially ceased investigations into UFOs. However, thanks largely to the 1974 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) official documents from the US military, the NSA, FBI and CIA are gradually being released into the public domain showing, unequivocally, their continued interest into the phenomenon.

Despite governmental assurances to the contrary, proponents of the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) believe it to be the tip of a conspiratorial iceberg to hide from the public the truth about UFOs and their extraterrestrial origins. for Dr Steven Greer, founder of the Center for the study of extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI), an accounting is long overdue.

The CSETI group convened a meeting involving delegates from 30 congressional offices and several first-hand government witnesses to UFO/ET events. The groundbreaking gathering took place at the National Press Club in Washington DC on May 9th, 2001. Here, Dr Greer urged the congressional attendees to ‘move forward on this subject through open hearings leading to a full public disclosure’.

Many of the 100-plus witnesses who are prepared to testify to Congress require protection from their government, or a subpoena to give their evidence. To this end the disclosure group asked for a Presidential Executive Order to protect its witnesses from what is essentially a violation of their security oaths.

American-born lawyer Peter Gersten, the founder of Citizens Against UFO Security (CAUS) who was responsible for the release of more than 900 pages of UFO related documents from the CIA in 1979, foresees problems with this approach as the military will undoubtedly question Congress’s right to grant immunity. They would then have to fight it out in the courts, a time-consuming process that would take years.

His thoughts on the US Congress holding open hearings are equally pessimistic. In a public interview for the X Factor magazine in 1999 (issue 74) he said, ‘Congressional hearings have been tried several times in the past and they haven’t worked for several reasons. The elected officials of Congress are only elected for two to maybe eight years, and are always vulnerable to the demands of pressure groups. Also, the idea of open hearings is inherently ridiculous because any discussion of UFOs  involves a discussion of advanced technology, an area kept secret by the military using national security, or by the corporations who protect their developments using patents.’

The Disclosure Project

The Disclosure Project has identified over 400 witnesses, world-wide. They come from every branch of the armed services and other agencies, including the UK. Over 100 of them have been video-taped and 70 transcribed into edited testimony.

The list boasts an impressive body of witnesses including John Callahan – retired Division Chief for the Accidents Evaluation and Investigative division of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He testified that he conducted a meeting with members of President Reagan’s scientific staff, the CIA, FBI and various others concerning a radar-visual UFO sighting.

After viewing the material it was handed over to Reagan’s staff and all present were sworn to secrecy by the CIA.  Fortunately, the Division Chief had already made a copy of the original video of what the pilot and controller had seen on the scope. Callahan now offers this as supporting evidence of his case.

Lt Col Charles L. Brown, USAF (ret), claimed he analysed UFO reports for the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI), many of which came from reputable sources. He has since become a firm believer in the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

Dan Willis of the United States Navy who held a top secret, crypto level-14 extra sensitive material-handling security clearance, stated that in 1969 he got a priority message from a ship near Alaska. The report spoke of a reddish/orange glowing object, about 70ft in diameter emerging out of the water and shooting off into space at an incredible speed. The event was tracked on radar and substantiated.

Former Philco Ford Aerospace employee Donna Hare testified that she was acquainted with someone who was quarantined with the Apollo II astronauts. During this time they allegedly told her friend they had witnessed ‘craft on the moon’ when they landed.

Then there is the testimony of former security specialist Larry Warren who, in December 1980, witnessed the bizarre events that took place in Rendlesham Forest and around the Air Force base at RAF Bentwaters’ NATO Air Force facilities in Suffolk, East Anglia. He claims to have witnessed grounded and aerial objects making incursions into their air space over a three-night period. Moreover, he further stated that some of these objects fired ‘pencil-thin beams of light’ into the weapons storage area.

Monumental task

In preparing the Briefing Document Dr Greer undertook a monumental task. By late December 2000 he began the selection and editing of over 120 hours of raw digital video testimony. By late February 2001 he had reduced it to 33 hours of select testimony and the 18 hours of ‘super select testimony.’  These were dubbed into audio tape and transcribed. The result: roughly 1200 pages of testimony transcript.  He worked an incredible 18 hours a day, seven days a week, to edit the transcripts into a readable form for the Briefing Document.

A 100-page ‘Executive Summary of the Disclosure Briefing Document’ was made available to the press, as was the more voluminous ‘Disclosure Briefing Document’ which was prepared and made available by Dr Greer and Theodore C. Loder III, PhD, for the US Government, its scientific community and the world’s media. To appreciate how powerful a document this truly is the reader is referred to the information panel sites given at the conclusion of this article.

Mark Hall, a Newcastle-based UFO researcher and official representative  for UFO Magazine (UK), was the only Briton to attend the event. He came away, as did many others, with the opinion that what he had seen and heard was some of the most significant UFO evidence ever presented.

‘I have carried this burden for eight years and I’m now giving it to you, the American people and the people of the world, to take it forward.’  One cannot help but feel that those words, spoken by Dr Greer in his closing summary, may well prove overly optimistic.

History has already shown us the political attitude adopted by governments concerning the UFO phenomenon, and one can only speculate as to what the world’s media will make of it. All too often their coverage of UFO events has been somewhat tongue-in-cheek , appearing uncertain as to whether they should take such stories seriously.

In addition, Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein – famous for the Watergate exposè – claimed in 1977 that the CIA was involved in a media subversion programme and had infiltrated every major news outlet both at home and abroad. If there is any veracity to his allegations (and the absence of any coverage by the media in the UK concerning this historical meeting appears to confirm this view), then the decades-old war of  attrition seems set to continue.

That Dr Greer and others have put their professional reputations on the line and have much to lose in terms of their credibility and prestige cannot be overstated. They have weathered the cabals of those shadowy agencies who, under the guise of national security, have purportedly withheld the truth from the world’s populace. They have suffered the scorn and ridicule of ill-informed skeptics and debunkers who still maintain that it would be remarkable for the US Government to keep such an incredible secret, despite historical precedents that show otherwise.

What of the Manhattan Project, which was responsible for the development of the first atomic bomb at a cost of $20 million in today’s money and involved more than 50,000 people? Or the breaking of the German and Japanese codes during World War II, involving more than 10,000 individuals? Sceptics are either woefully ignorant of these facts or are suffering from what can be best described as selective amnesia.

The UFO subject has attracted more than its fair share of cranks and fraudsters in its chequered past. Their extravagant and outlandish claims have done little to persuade the scientific community that it is an area worthy of study.

In accepting the notion that all like tales are equally as fanciful scientists have largely rejected the phenomenon. More, they have conducted no serious investigations or observations and experiments, nor validation of hypotheses through such.

Certainly, the Disclosure witnesses are who they claim to be. Their credentials are impeccable and they may well have been first-hand witnesses to some of the most consequential events in human history.

Authors Note: The above article was written and published in 2001. Since that time Larry Warren’s claims have been proven fraudulent.