UFOs - Leslie Kean [128]
Putting the hype aside, serious investigators and retired officials make the legitimate point that the known facts alone, such as those raised so far in this book, do lead to perplexing, unanswered questions about U.S. government secrecy. In 1999, the French COMETA group chastised the United States for what it calls an “impressive repressive arsenal” of tactics protecting UFO information, including a policy of disinformation and military regulations prohibiting public disclosure of sightings. Air Force Regulation 200–2, “Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting,” for example, prohibits the release to the public and the media of any data about “those objects which are not explainable.” An even more restrictive procedure is outlined in the Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication 146, which threatens to prosecute anyone under its jurisdiction—including pilots, civilian agencies, merchant marine captains, and even some fishing vessels—for disclosing reports of those sightings relevant to U.S. security. Fortunately, I am not aware of any cases in which such extreme actions were taken.
But we do know for sure, as shown by the Bolender memo and government files released through the FOIA, that the U.S. government has had some level of involvement in UFO investigations since the close of Project Blue Book, despite claims to the contrary. Nevertheless, officials are usually irrationally unresponsive to unfolding UFO events, as they were during the Hudson Valley sightings in the 1980s, and provide ridiculous and false explanations when pressed.
We also know that UFO documents have been previously classified by government agencies, as shown by their later release through the Freedom of Information Act, and that some information still remains so. National Security Agency UFO files were released in 1997, following a lawsuit years earlier, but they were so heavily redacted (the NSA stated all deletions had to do with protecting sensitive sources and methods) that they were virtually useless. In response to FOIA requests, agencies have initially denied having documents on file which turn up later somewhere else, or are found in a second search. Researchers have discovered that in many UFO cases for which official reports were filed at the time, none can be found later when looking in the logical places. And as also stated in the Bolender memo, UFO reports affecting national security were to be filed outside the Blue Book system. Where are these files, and why can’t they all be released?
Over the years, even senior government officials have made an effort to access hidden UFO evidence. Senator Barry Goldwater attempted to penetrate the vaults at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the home of Project Blue Book, during the UFO “golden age” of the 1960s, and described his efforts in a series of letters he wrote in response to inquiries years later. Goldwater, a licensed pilot and retired major general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, had studied reputable pilot reports and had a longtime interest in the subject. He was convinced that a secret UFO program did exist. “About ten or twelve years ago I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where the information is stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret,” he wrote in a 1975 letter.2
In a 1981 letter to a researcher, Goldwater said that, regarding this effort, “I have had one long string of denials from chief after chief, so I have given up … this thing has gotten so highly classified, even though I will admit there is a lot of it that has