The Majestic 12 documents, alleged alien autopsies, ufologist Bill Moore, crashed UFOs, a program designed to destabilize scientist/UFO researcher Paul Bennewitz, and the FBI’s file on Stan Friedman: they have all been under my microscope – so to speak – over the last week. Now, it’s time for me to wrap up this strange saga for a while. What have we learned from digging into all of this? Well, first and foremost we know that in varying ways, all of the above were inter-connected. And we also know that much of the story revolved around intelligence agents of both the United States and the former Soviet Union. But, not necessarily for reasons directly connected to the real UFO phenomenon itself. What all of this tells us is that much of the UFO scene – and particularly the period from the late 1970s to roughly the mid-to-late 1980s – was deliberately manipulated by what we might call “saucer spies.” A great deal of what passed for reality in that period was outright fabricated by government agents. And that’s an important matter to be aware of.
It’s an unfortunate thing for me to have to say, but it’s a fact that, over the years, I have seen so many UFO researchers buy into some of Ufology’s most controversial and unlikely stories – just because those same stories were cool to read. A perfect example is the Serpo situation of November 2005. That was when a source using the term “Anonymous” came out of the shadows and told an incredible story. Some said it was too incredible to be true. It certainly was. “Anonymous” said: “In 1965, we had an exchange program with the aliens. We carefully selected 12 military personnel; ten men and two women. They were trained, vetted and carefully removed from the military system. The 12 were skilled in various specialties. Near the northern part of the Nevada Test Site, the aliens landed and the 12 Americans left. One entity was left on Earth. The original plan was for our 12 people to stay 10 years and then return to Earth. But something went wrong. The 12 remained until 1978, when they were returned to the same location in Nevada. Seven men and one woman returned. Two died on the alien’s home planet. Four others decided to remain, according to the returnees. Of the eight that returned, all have died. The last survivor died in 2002.”
In essence, that’s the story of Serpo. It caused a sensation in Ufology when it surfaced. Not because there was any evidence to support it. Rather, because for many in Ufology the story was exciting. And also for many, that was the only reason. The truth of it all is that the Serpo story was a total fabrication. It was carefully put together – at some point between the late 1960s and the early 1970s – by a very skilled woman named Alice Bradley Sheldon. She was a sci-fi writer, who wrote under the alias of James Tiptree, Jr., and who just also happened to have been a significant employee of the CIA. Her role, as strange as it sounds, was to try and make the Russians think we were in league with aliens. We weren’t. When I mentioned this to a few well-known figures in Ufology I got nothing but defensive, red-faced, arms-folded responses. Why? Because I was spoiling the action and the intrigue. Too bad. What this (as well as the MJ12 saga and the Bennewitz affair) demonstrates, is that so often Ufology falls for some of the worst crap that’s out there. And that’s why so much of late 1970s/early 1980s Ufology got tied up with the likes of Majestic 12, dead aliens, and autopsies of E.T.s. And, in the 1990s, got all excited by the Tim Cooper-era MJ12 papers and the aforementioned Serpo tales.
The fact is that Ufology, as a collective community, has been the victim of highly-skilled manipulators for a long, long time. Those same manipulators were experts in the fields of disinformation and counterintelligence. And Ufology absolutely fell for their garbage. The big irony is that much of this had nothing to do with real aliens or UFOs – just like the Serpo yarn. A great deal – behind the scenes, I should stress – was done to try and terrify the Russians into believing that the U.S. had crashed UFOs and alien technology. Maybe, even, live aliens out at Area 51. None of this was real. But, it was all meant to look like it was. It worked extremely well and Ufology got sucked into it all. The fact is, there is a genuine, unknown UFO phenomenon. Whether it’s extraterrestrial or inter-dimensional, I have absolutely no idea. Maybe our presumed aliens are time-travelers. Then, there’s the demonic theory. But, it’s very important to know this real, elusive mystery has been hijacked by intelligence agents who – in the early years of Ufology – came to realize they could use the UFO mystery as a tool of the Cold War. And they did. To Ufology’s cost.