UFOs

that those in charge would have been extremely careful to keep such revolutionary information away from any “enemy” countries or rogue nations, including the Soviet Union during the Cold War. They would have been mindful of any future economic benefits that could result from these exotic technologies as well, and would likely want to ensure that U.S. corporations would be the exclusive beneficiaries of any breakthroughs.

As discussed previously, some official documents of the forties and fifties clearly show that, having eliminated the option of the phenomenon being some new manifestation within the natural world, a number of highly placed officials did take the position that UFOs were interplanetary. An inclination to withhold from the public information about something so unthinkable is conceivable given its potentially vast implications. Perhaps those in possession of the secret just wanted to put off its release until more was learned, but that day never came. Also, reflecting back to Nick Pope’s “threat = capability + intent” equation, there would have been much concern about inherent dangers. A rational governmental response would have been to understand and control the situation as much as possible before acknowledging anything about unidentified flying objects to anyone else, and to keep that explosive information highly classified. Our government would not have wanted to risk mass hysteria.

Obviously, we don’t know with any certainty whether or not such a secret research program exists, although there have been hints and suggestions, usually from reports of individuals claiming indirect knowledge, that keep the question alive. It is raised repeatedly by those curious about UFOs, many of whom regard it as an issue of major, compelling importance. However, the alternative notion is much easier to accept: that the United States is as baffled as anyone else about this mystery, and just as helpless in confronting the unpredictable phenomenon as any other country. The world’s superpower simply shrugs its shoulders and looks away, as if there is nothing to be done, focusing on more urgent matters confronting human beings than the sporadic appearance of something odd in the sky.

The fact is, even if we eventually learn that a secret research group has been operating, the state (meaning the government, military, and scientific structures creating our society) is undoubtedly not privy to this intimate information about UFOs. Any behind-the-scenes endeavor would have to be so exclusive, so entirely covert, that in effect its existence would make no difference to our government or country, to the people who know nothing about it, which is essentially everyone. In this sense, it’s unimportant to the business at hand: establishing a U.S. agency so that an open, worldwide investigation can take place.

Nonetheless, even though the question of a cover-up is really a side issue, and will continue to be as long as such a program—if it exists at all—remains deeply buried, it remains a focus for the interested public, hotly debated and often explored in television documentaries. In interviews about UFOs, it is usually one of the primary questions asked.

When I first became involved with the subject of UFOs, I sought out reliable, trusted sources as any responsible investigative journalist would, attempting to find out what our government actually knows about UFOs. The process took many years, requiring great care and discernment, and eventually sources began seeking me out as well. Whether or not I choose to take any person seriously comes down to personal judgment, which for me is based on meeting the person whenever possible, talking at length, knowing them over time, learning about their background, checking the accuracy of facts they’ve reported, and understanding their motivations. Also, I always look for corroboration.

When probing the question of a possible secret government research program into UFOs, or anything, for that matter, that is highly sensitive, the sources will rarely go on the record, for obvious reasons. Their accounts are also extremely hard to verify, because even if they provide names of others involved, these people will deny any knowledge of such a program. Alarm bells could be set off by an attempt to locate these individuals, so sometimes I have been asked not to do so. This type of information, therefore, as exciting as it may be, has to be relegated to what reporters call “deep background.” It may help inform how one views the issue, but not centrally. It can nudge us in a certain direction, or inspire future inquiries. It’s all very intriguing, but always just out of reach.

I am willing to take such sensitive information seriously when two or more credible, qualified sources report the same thing independently of each other—for example, when men from different branches of government who don’t know each other, with years separating their statements, provide essentially the same reports. And concerning the question of a secret government research program on UFOs, this has occurred. A number of reliable sources have told me about their conversations with high-level military contacts who say they are aware of a deeply hidden program for UFO research, one which is so closely guarded that even people at the highest levels of the military are denied access to it. Some of these independent accounts include names and specific details. Much case evidence over the years has also pointed to the plausibility of this kind of program, although it can’t authoritatively be determined one way or the other.

Some of the anonymous sources I refer to include mainstream scientists, all Ph.D.s with impressive, lengthy resumes, some of whom have worked for the CIA or other intelligence agencies—an astrophysicist, a physicist, an astronomer, among others—and a NASA aerospace engineer. One military source, Commander Will Miller, U.S. Navy (Ret.), has gone on the record while keeping certain specifics confidential. He agreed to reply to a series of questions I presented to him in late 2009 about the question of government secrecy.

Although still very active, Miller, who now lives in Florida, retired from active duty in 1994, the same year he was awarded the Department of Defense Meritorious Service Medal. As a naval officer and decorated Vietnam combat veteran, he had his own sighting from a Navy vessel while serving near Vietnam. He later became a senior Department of Defense command center operations action officer, a senior intelligence analyst, and a program manager for DoD future operations programs such as WWIII planning, nonlethal weapons systems, and future space systems. He was an advisor to U.S. Space Command and U.S. Southern Command and its international counterdrug operations, Joint Interagency Task Force East. As an expert in special contingency operations, Miller held a Top Secret clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access, meaning he had access to sensitive information whose handling is restricted one step further than the Top Secret classification, including that which is related to topics and programs not publicly acknowledged.

While an officer on active duty throughout the 1980s, Miller did not hide his interest in UFOs. “I was simply a concerned officer who studied the subject, looked at the facts, and talked to people in the military,” he says. “People with personal knowledge would seek me out because they knew I had an interest. I’ve done this for a long time.”

By 1989, Miller had become acutely aware that high-ranking military officers were not properly informed about the UFO phenomenon, and he became concerned, like the COMETA authors, about possible national security issues arising, not from the UFOs themselves, but from a lack of preparedness. He believes that we must assume UFOs have the same right of self-defense to hostile intent or hostile acts as we accord our own military forces. Fortunately, these rights have not been acted upon by the UFOs, as far as we know, when attacked. “Only a small fraction have demonstrated even a remote semblance of hostility, and that was only with severe provocation, usually an attack by military aircraft,” he says. “If the entire body of data were examined, the obvious conclusion would be that UFOs are not hostile. That is precisely what the U.S. military declared after many years of UFO study: that UFOs pose no threat to the national security of the United States.”

After he retired from the U.S. Navy, Miller began taking steps to set up a series of information briefings that culminated in meetings in 1997 with Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, vice director for intelligence on the Joint Staff, and in 1998 with Lieutenant General Patrick M. Hughes, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). (Wilson later became director of the DIA and Hughes, the corporate vice president for intelligence and counterterrorism at the Department of Homeland Security.) Miller has provided me with a confidential, detailed account of these meetings and those leading up to them, including attendees, preparatory briefings, topics discussed, and reactions from attendees.

He explains that he raised two national security concerns at his briefings: the risk of uninformed human aggression toward UFOs, leading to a possible disaster, and the government’s disregard for public concern about UFOs and its refusal to provide honest answers to legitimate questions. Miller feels strongly that unnecessary secrecy threatens the public’s sense of personal security while eroding trust in the government institutions mandated to inform and protect U.S. citizens. “The officials have universally received these briefings with the same serious consideration as briefings on any other national security issue,” he says.

I first contacted Commander Miller ten years ago, in 1999, through the introduction of a mutual colleague. I was repeatedly struck by the similarity of his conclusions and approach to those expressed by retired French