there is a lot of it that has been released, it is just impossible to get anything on it.”[166] And in 1983 he wrote: “I have no idea of who controls the flow of ‘need-to-know’ because, frankly, I was told in such an emphatic way that it was none of my business that I’ve never tried to make it my business since.”[167]
Finally, when asked during a 1994 radio interview, Senator Goldwater said: “I think the government
A year later, in 1995, New Mexico congressman Steven Schiff announced the results of a General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation, which he initiated on behalf of his constituents, attempting to access records related to events surrounding a mysterious crash in 1947, near Roswell, New Mexico, which has become famous due to the popular belief that what came down was a flying saucer. “The GAO report states that the outgoing messages from Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) for this period of time were destroyed without proper authority,” Schiff explained in his press release. “It is my understanding that these outgoing messages were permanent records, which should never have been destroyed. The GAO could not identify who destroyed the messages, or why.”[169] The Air Force had claimed for nearly half a century that the crashed object was a weather balloon. In 1994, while Schiff was waiting for results from the GAO, it retracted that statement and announced that the crash debris actually came from a then-classified device to detect evidence of possible Soviet nuclear testing.[170] Naturally, that delayed explanation raised enough new questions to keep the Roswell controversy going, one that includes a volume of compelling witness testimony contradicting the Air Force position. The unsuccessful efforts of both Goldwater and Schiff to obtain information through official channels do not
In fact, each component used to argue that excessive government secrecy shows there is an official cover- up of knowledge about UFOs could have a host of possible alternative explanations. We know that the FOIA does not work efficiently, and that the complicated bureaucracy involved with record keeping is overwhelmed and not well organized. UFOs might logically be on the bottom of the list of priorities. And where are all those who would have worked on this deep, black program—hundreds or thousands of specialists, or their surviving family members? Certainly at least a few would feel the moral imperative to share knowledge or discoveries about UFOs with the rest of humanity, and would take the risk of doing so, perhaps even seeking shelter in whistleblower protection programs. And yet there have been, so far as we know, no deathbed confessions or willed documents from any of these government scientists, nor have any wives revealed the truth about a Special Access Program on UFOs. Not even one. And finally, we have not seen the results of any truly fantastic back-engineered military technology that might have resulted from captured UFOs, despite rumors to the contrary.
Directives to military and government employees instructing them to keep sensitive matters quiet are standard operating procedure for a range of issues and a range of purposes. The sudden appearance of an unknown object creating havoc for Air Force pilots at sensitive air bases would not be something any military authorities would wish to make public, especially during the Cold War. If the military was unable to identify that something, it seems even more logical that the event would be kept under wraps. But this does
Returning to the easier analysis, perhaps the sensitive research projects hidden within the U.S. government avoid dealing with UFOs simply because even our most specialized intelligence officials actually don’t know much about them and can see that there is nothing to be done one way or the other. The objects haven’t caused us harm and there are many other, more immediately dangerous and pressing issues to be addressed, involving human survival both economical and environmental. This would mean that the only cover-up in place is that which conceals any recognition that UFOs exist, and involves nothing more than that.
And this nonacknowledgment has its own logic. It makes sense that the authorities would have no motivation to announce publicly that there are apparently all-powerful unknown machines flying without restriction in our skies and beyond our control. Would our government want to acknowledge its own impotence in the face of something unidentified yet well-documented? Some authorities may worry about public panic, whether we know what they are or not. Even if the U.S. government acknowledged the presence of an unexplained phenomenon, the extraterrestrial hypothesis would become part of the debate, and if the thinking became that these likely
On the other hand, it is important to remember that the Belgian Air Force did just this in 1990, and other countries have done so, as well, in relationship to specific events, and no dire popular upheavals or waves of fear have disturbed these societies. Instead, people continued their regular lives with much less need than we find here in America to create alternative explanations or conspiracy theories in order to satisfy their natural human curiosity. Nonetheless, in this huge, multicultural country that sees itself as a planetary leader on many fronts, opening that door through any kind of organized official statement seems to remain entirely unappealing.
However, such government reticence must and
CHAPTER 24
Governor Fife Symington and Movement Toward Change
On March 13, 1997, a decade after the Hudson Valley UFO wave had quieted down, multiple triangular and V-shaped UFOs made a series of brazen new appearances, this time over the western United States.
It was a pleasant spring evening in Arizona, clear and still, and countless families were outside in larger than usual numbers gazing at the sky, because Comet Hale-Bopp was to be visible that night. Instead, beginning at about 8:00 p.m., they were provided with an even more astounding aerial spectacle: a series of massive, eerily silent craft gliding overhead like nothing they had ever seen before. One central object moved from the north, southeast across the state, traveling about 200 miles from Paulden to Tucson, passing near Phoenix and surrounding communities. It was on display between 8:15 and 9:30 p.m. Many hundreds—more likely thousands— saw it.
Police department phone lines were jammed and the local air force installation, Luke Air Force Base, was overwhelmed with calls. Reports of sightings from around the state flooded the lines at the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC)—the well-known repository for UFO reports cited in the FAA manual—based in Seattle, Washington. Even so, air traffic controllers apparently did not register the strange objects on radar.
Although descriptions of the array of lights differed, one overriding characteristic prevailed: the craft was massive; it was a solid object, not merely lights; and it often appeared to be very low in the sky, blocking out the stars behind it. A younger witness said he could clearly see the underside of the craft, and thought if he had thrown a stone, he could have hit it. According to eyewitness reports in the NUFORC files, which received its first report at 6:55 p.m. from Henderson, Nevada, one group of three said it blocked out most of the sky, while another family of five described looking out the automobile windows while driving at eighty miles an hour and observing the incredibly huge craft passing above their car. It was the size of multiple football fields and up to a mile long, many said. A little league game had to stop as the massive object passed over the heads of moms, dads, kids, and coaches staring in disbelief. Some people described its color as a dark gun-metal gray, and many people were awestruck by the silence of the object, given its size, especially when watching it take off in the blink of an eye.
