What Does the Government Know? Pt.2
Civilian organizations have been studying the UFO problem since the mid-1950s. Governments and military groups, even longer than that. When Civilian Saucer Intelligence, Ground Saucer Watch, and the International Flying Saucer Bureau came on the scene, the government “pros” were on the job immediately, infiltrating the hobbyists for exactly the same reasons as they did later in the 1980s (as referenced in the last installment): they wanted to know if these people were a threat to national security first, and what, if anything they were discovering that the military didn’t already know.
It is reasonably certain that the reports of Men In Black that began to surface in the mid-1950s were not for the most part UFOnauts in earthly disguise. In a 1992 interview Bill Moore said that he was told about these heady days and what had happened from the government point of view. Some in the intelligence business at the time figured that simply appearing on the scene and flashing official credentials was not getting the results they wanted, so they kicked it up a notch:
It basically stems from a covert group within the military community who are very good at playing games. One of the games they devised was this men in black thing to obtain information and leave behind a legacy of mystery which would be a good cover for them. There is a group. I’ve worked with some of them…They are part of a special unit out of the counterintelligence comunity which employs a whole range of strange people-from safecrackers to con artists to fast talkers. They make deals with them that if they will serve so many years they’ll be given a clean bill of health and a new identity, and somewhere way back when they cooked up this men in black thing as a device for enabling them to get information out of people, particularly physical evidence without having to give them a government receipt for it. I knew a couple of them, and as far as I know, the group, although it’s changed its name, it is still very much alive. It’s not the only thing they do of course, and they are in operation all over the world.
These shadowy operatives may also have been (consciously or not) using an archetype to their advantage, and in the process perpetuating the legend of the seeker who gets “too close to the truth” and is warned off by mysterious strangers in the dead of night. Nowadays, all that is needed is a good hacker to infiltrate your website if you start to talk about things that get too close to “The Truth,” even if you don’t happen to now what that truth is.
Whitley Strieber has claimed that he was harassed by shadowy elements of officialdom from the time Communion was published in 1987. There are at least two possible reasons for this:
1) Strieber may have been about to reveal “too much” about our relationship with “the Visitors” or
2) Intel and Counter-Intel may have been interested in the source for his stories and if there was any foreign influence on someone who had the potential to affect the worldview of millions of readers.
One government insider claimed that Strieber would “go insane” within a few months after first admitting to his encounters. Obviously, this did not happen. To his credit, Strieber continued his self-examination during the ensuing years, and integrated it successfully as a philosophical and spiritual learning experience.
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Dec 22 2006 
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:20 am
I know that both Jim Keith and Jenny Randles wrote books on the MIB; but maybe it’s time for an update? There’s so much info out there on this topic and much of it is scattered around.
December 22nd, 2006 at 8:28 am
Even if there are Men in Black type state sponsored organisations operating out there - and I’m happy with the idea there probably are - then they’re almost certainly operating alongside ‘forces’ or ‘things’ way beyond their control or even sphere of influence.
My strong suspicion is, though, rather than admit that, and thus admit their own redundance, the main game they’re “very good at playing” is promoting the idea, no matter how much it might appear to the contrary, no matter how mindbendingly incomprehensible and paranormal things might seem to get, it’s only because they like things to seem that way, it’s only because they don’t want anyone to be certain who’s really in charge, who’s really running the show, though really, secretly, between you and them - wink, wink! - be in no doubt, it is them.
The thing is though, I also suspect a great deal of this isn’t purely down to professional self defense, i.e., protection of their continued existence, their budget, their status, their power: a lot of is down to pure ego inadequacy.
In the most recent edition of ‘The Sirius Mystery’, Robert Temple recounts how at the time the book first came out he came to discover Carl Sagan was going around behind his back secretly briefing all manner of influential media people against him, implying to them he was doing this on behalf of the Secret Services who viewed Temple and his book as some sort of hush-hush threat to the very fabric of world order.
And of course, maybe at the time that really was how the Secret Services viewed Temple and his tome.
But then again, maybe Sagan’s behaviour had something more to do with the fact his own book, ‘Intelligent Life in the Universe’, (co-written with Soviet astronomer I.S. Shklovskii in 1966), proposed the closely related thesis the ancient Sumerian culture-bringing god Oannes might have been a visiting extraterrestrial, yet with nothing like the kind of impact or acclaim Temple’s work received.
* * *
p.s. love this new blog format you guys have switched to: the previous one was so fussy and irritating I found it much too easy to ‘exclude’ it from the ‘middle’ of my regularly visited sites.
This way, though, really brings out the powerful contrast between your approaches: yours, considered, diplomatic, Californian; Nick’s, irreverent/antagonistic/anarchic/icono-clastic, latterday British.
Or putting it another way: yours, more ’suit and tie’, (to use a Redfernism); Nick’s more, “Suits you, sir!”
December 23rd, 2006 at 12:49 am
alanborky,
Although as you say, there is a lot of ego-boosting going on in the shadows, there is also a lot of work for which many of these people never get any credit and if trained properly, and is being done for the best reasons, they really don’t need any. As for THEIR puppetmasters, I occasionally see more dark motivations–also as you point out.
As for the MIB charade, I’m not sure if the originators were even aware of the history of the “dark stranger warning the seeker” scenario. As you so rightly argue, perhaps they were unwittingly playing with archetypal fire. During the Paul Bennewitz operation, Richard Doty grilled Moore on the history of the MIB. Moore said that Doty listened carefully and took extensive notes. What he did with this info is anyone’s guess, although I’m sure it was put to good (or bad) use.
Hey, don’t be so quick to call me diplomatic! See my very first post and the most recent one about abductions, but yes, I tend to look at things from the excluded middle POV.
I do have only one real personal dislike in the UFO field, but that is only because of some personal interaction and firsthand witnessing of his shenanigans. He is one of the personalities profiled at Royce Meyers’ excellent and hilarious site UFOwatchdog.com. Have a guess.
The only other thing that gets my dander up is willful and aggressive stupidity, of which there is no shortage on either side of the UFO debate.