Jan 03 2007

FBI Spied on Saucer Watcher

My most recent book, On the Trail of the Saucer Spies, revealed the startling fact that, since the late 1940s, government agencies in both the United States and Britain have for yearsÂ been secretly monitoring the activities of numerous researchers of the UFO mystery.

For the most part, however, those researchers thatÂ became the subject of government files were being watched as a result of official fears that their UFO investigations wereÂ merely cover-stories to allow them to undertakeÂ clandestine, espionage-based operations for the former Soviet Union, or for radical, political groups. That on no occasion was this ever ultimately proven to be the case, however, never deterred the relevant agencies (including the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Scotland Yard) from making sweeping judgements and coming to wholly unwarranted conclusions about the researchers in question.

And, now,Â thanks to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, further evidence has surfaced concerning official interest in yet another individual - and again as a result of specific concerns about the man’s politics, andÂ the fact that heÂ hadÂ lectured on the subject of UFOs. That man was one Oliver Kenneth Goff, described in now-declassified FBI files of 6 May 1955 as “a self-styled freelance Evangelist who for the past number of years has been speaking around the U.S. regarding the threat of communism to the U.S.”

Indeed, one of Goff’s regular lectures was titled: “Traitors in the Pulpit, or What’s Behind the Flying Saucers - Are they from Russia, Another Planet, or God?”

Other lectures that Goff routinely delivered to interested parties included: “Treason in our State Department;” “Should we use the Atom Bomb?;” “Red Secret Plot for Seizure of Denver;” and “Do the Reds Plan to Come by Alaska?”

As the FBI additionally noted: “Also, some of the titles of Goff’s books, which he publishes voluminously are: ‘Will Russia Invade America?’, ‘One World, A Red World’, and ‘Confessions of Stalin’s Agent.’”

The FBI further noted that “Goff is a self-admitted former member of the Communist Party,” and that he “was found guilty by jury trial on February 25, 1948, in United States District Court, District of Columbia, and was fined $100 as a result of the subject’s placing anti-communist signs before the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C.”

FBI files on Goff also record that: “The ‘Rocky Mountain News’ on October 25, 1951, contained an article stating that three Englewood persons were ordered to appear in Denver Municipal Court as an aftermath of the ripping of the Soviet flag yesterday at Civic Center. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Goff were two of these three individuals.”

Goff was certainly an interesting character, and had made comments in the 1950s about communist based plans to covertly introduce fluoride into the US water-supply,Â to create a “spirit of lethargy in the nation.”Â Goff also claimed that - in the 1950s - he compiled a document titled “Brain-Washing: A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook of Psychopolitics.”

Goff died in 1972 while still only in his early sixties. And while we now have access to at least some of the official world’s surveillance files on Goff, the full story of his links with communism and flying saucers remains tantalisingly incomplete. Unless someone out there reading this can fill in the blanks…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 11:52 am and is filed under Breaking News, Government Projects, The Redfern Files. You can follow responses via RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is not allowed.
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