Posted on 02/27/2008 9:06:28 AM PST by BGHater
On Jan. 10, just one day after my article on UFO secrecy appeared in this newspaper and on this Web site (“Intelligent Extraterrestrial life: The Other Inconvenient truth?” Jan. 9), I was unceremoniously dropped as a Cato Institute adjunct scholar, a position I’d held for more than 20 years.
First some background. I’m a Ph.D. economist with a national reputation in the antitrust area. I’ve written books, journal articles, and many dozens of op-ed articles over the years on a variety of public-policy issues. My association with the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D. C. goes back many decades. Yet they cut me away in a heartbeat because I dared call for more government disclosure on the UFO phenomenon.
I really didn’t believe that calling for more disclosure was all that controversial. After all, John Podesta, former chief of staff under Bill Clinton, has called for more government disclosure on the UFO subject. Former astronaut Ed Mitchell has repeatedly called for more disclosure, as has Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M. Former Canadian Minister of Defense Paul Hellyer has stated that our government knows that UFOs are interplanetary machines and that the secrecy should end. Given these bold assertions by “insiders,” I thought that I was in safe company; apparently I was wrong.
Actually the most classic call for disclosure came 48 years ago from former CIA Director Vice Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkotter. As reported in The New York Times of Feb. 28, 1960, Hillenkotter (in a letter to Congress) argued that “it is time that the truth (about UFOs) be brought out in open Congressional Hearings.” He went on to say that “through official SECRECY and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense ...” and, further, that the Air Force “has silenced its personnel” in order “to hide the facts.”
If a former CIA director could say that, why couldn’t I?
The most recent attempt to “chill” serious media interest in UFO secrecy occurred in Stephenville, Texas. Stephenville currently is a hotbed of UFO activity, and much of the newspaper reporting has been done by the Empire Tribune’s Angelia Joiner. Ms. Joiner filed some of the first stories, talked to many witnesses of the phenomenon, and even appeared on a CNN Larry King special in January.
Yet despite a worldwide interest in the sightings, Ms. Joiner recently was fired by the Empire Tribune for, among other things, openly questioning the U.S. Air Force’s improbable explanation of the sightings.
So much for courage and truth.
None of this intimidation and media censorship is new. I first became interested in UFO secrecy when CBS aired an Armstrong Circle Theater episode on UFOs on Jan. 22, 1958. On that program, an Air Force spokesman recited the standard mantra that UFOs were all nonsense and that the government wasn’t hiding anything.
Also on the program was Donald E. Keyhoe, executive director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena and the leading critic of an Air Force cover-up. At one point during the live broadcast, Keyhoe broke away from his pre-approved remarks and said, “And now I’m going to reveal something that has never been disclosed before ...” but then his microphone suddenly went dead. The live TV audience saw his lips moving (me included) but his audio had been terminated by CBS and the U. S. Air Force under a prior agreement. Keyhoe intended to tell the American public that NICAP had proof that UFOs were real machines under intelligent control but he never got the chance. He’d been censored by those who claimed that they had nothing to hide.
In this presidential year of “hope,” let us all hope that someone, somewhere will finally be honest with the American people about unidentified flying objects. Censorship and intimidation have no place in a free and democratic society. We (they) continue this policy at our peril.
Armentano is professor emeritus in economics at the University of Hartford and has written op-ed articles for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other newspapers. He lives in Vero Beach.
I can see this as the government’s response, but it trickles down to individuals. If someone you know and trust tells you they saw a UFO, do you believe them or right away jump to the conclusion that they are whacko - like the government promotes?
Obviously that would depend entirely on the details of what the person told me and on what else I knew about the person. And it’s a big jump from saying you saw something in the sky that didn’t look like an airplane or a natural phenomenon, to demanding the government explain it to you and claiming “conspiracy” and “cover-up” when they don’t. Anyone who proceeds into the latter sort of talk, I will dismiss as whacko and/or exceptionally naive.
You could say that about most any think tank. They spend 20% of their time "thinking" and 80% of their time fund-raising.
If it weren’t for Charles Koch, there’d be no CATO.
Thanks to all who’ve requested being added to the ping list.
Cheers.
The one thing that I know for sure is that there is consistent and reliable evidence that our government can’t keep a secret about anything for more than 15 seconds.
Koch's money, Crane's connections, and Rothbard's ideas.
I’ll take em all...
Already posted?
Of course that doesn’t account for the fact that Michael Rennie hasn’t been seen lately.
You can and you did!
You are now a 'former' like the rest of the guys.
No, the government doesn’t owe us some big disclosure necessarily, but when they say things like “weather balloon” and “swamp gas” (an oldie) and “Venus” they are just asking for trouble. People will find those explanations silly and see conspiracy. People could handle an explanation closer to the truth if it is all just special ops. We all now know that projects like the stealth and others once existed in their infancy and could have accounted for some UFO sightings - why not just allude to this? It’s not like other countries don’t already know that we work on stuff like that - they probably do too. There would be no real secrets given away, the people could believe the explanation, and no one would be made out to be crazy.
Dennis Kucinich believes in UFO’s. He is also not a libertarian.
Coincidence???? Or.....Conspiracy??????????
The truth is out there.
Thanks.
Will check it out.
If the pesky aliens from Mexico, China, & etc. are so bound and determined to get into the USA then why shouldn't the pesky aliens from (pick a name) come here, too? The USA is pretty cool place and, obviously, we have a pretty good reputation even with the off-planet types.
EXCERPT fromt he above link at #53
“I was not a big UFO person, didn’t know much about it other than my own experience.” Sitting in her Tyler, Texas home, Charlotte man tells us about her experience, which she calls the “family secret,” many of the details discovered on her grandparents deathbeds.
It was April, 1941 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Around 9:30 p.m., Charlotte’s grandfather, Reverend William Huffman, got a call about a plane crash and was asked to help. “When they got out there, it wasn’t a plane crash at all. It was a saucer, was how he described it,” says Charlotte.
According to the story, 3 alien bodies lie on the ground next to the spaceship; two already dead. “However, granddad said the third one when he got to him, he was breathing very shallow and so he did pray with him. He did expire as he was on his knees praying for him. He then went to the other two and prayed over them.”
And you think that the UFO conspiracy theorists would believe that they declassified all the appropriate material?
I'm also kind of curious how you expect our government to keep secrets if they point out everything that isn't a secret project?
The conspiracy crowd won’t accept a brief “national security” explanation. Give them a crumb and they’ll use it to launch more conspiracy theories. They’ll demand proof that the crumb is true. Remember that these things are NOT necessarily ours. Maybe none of them are, maybe some are ours and some are from other countries. Even saying “ours” or “not ours” or “some ours, some not ours” is WAY too much information, but you can be sure the conspiracy crowd would holler that it’s not enough.
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