Tuesday, May 31, 2011

More On Area 51, Roswell, Jacobsen, Etc.

Well, the controversy surrounding Annie Jacobsen's Area 51 book rumbles on at a steady pace - as this latest post from Tony Bragalia demonstrates. And, for further evidence of the way in which the UFO research community has been commenting on (and continues to comment on) the controversy, check out the Comments section at this recent post at The UFO Iconoclasts.

But, there's something else I want to talk about. It's something that has not been noted thus far, but is nevertheless highly relevant to this particular saga.

The angle of insiders with links to Area 51 being told that Roswell was a Soviet hoax (involving genetically-altered human beings) is an intriguing one. Now, just so there can be no misunderstanding, I don't mean that because it's intriguing I believe it's the answer to the puzzle. I certainly don't.

However, the scenario of Area 51-linked people being told such a story does not begin and end with Jacobsen's informant. Six-months ago, my book, The NASA Conspiracies was published and included a whole chapter that told the tale of a man who had worked at Area 51 in the early 1970s, and who had heard a very similar story.

It's a strange and convoluted saga involving a man named John who was exposed to a series of weird and controversial files that told astonishing tales of alien visitation and UFO crashes in the early, formative years of the Flying Saucer era.

As I note in my book, The NASA Conspiracies:

"John stressed that although the documentation at issue certainly looked genuine, he was never able to entirely dismiss from his mind the possibility that his exposure to the files could have been a part of some large, and very curious and convoluted, mind game on the part of NASA and the intelligence services, such as the CIA, Air Force Intelligence, and the National Security Agency. Since his work at Area 51 and his access to the files surfaced as a direct result of his FBI contacts, John speculated that his superiors may have exposed him to totally bogus materials at Area 51, and then watched his every move to see if he spoke out of turn, and to those without security clearances. The fact that John never did speak out of turn in that twelve month period, and was thereafter considered utterly trustworthy, led him to be rewarded with a near decade long career in the private security sector. It was a career that saw him move, practically effortlessly, within highly influential circles in the world of U.S. Intelligence that were totally unconnected to UFOs."


To me, at least, this is all very refreshing. Whistle-blowers are generally extremely keen to have their story believed; but John noted to me from the absolute outset (and as the above extract clearly demonstrates) that the nature of the data to which he was exposed should be addressed very carefully, and not accepted uncritically at all.

But, there's more.

John related an aspect of the story to me, that was published in my NASA book, and which dealt with one specific set of papers that, today, we can see is highly relevant to the account provided to Jacobsen. I described it in the pages of my 2010 book like this:

"...John did assert, however, that there was a brief collection of documents dating from July 1947 speculating that this might have all been the result of a very ingenious hoax on the part of the Soviets – until, that is, it very quickly became acutely apparent to one and all that not even the Soviet Union would have had the required expertise to successfully pull off such a fantastic ruse, much less biologically alter, or mutate, a number of human beings into something very different."

To me, this is important, as we have old files (that ultimately found their way to Area 51 - they did not originate there) discussing the two central points of the story told to Jacobsen: (A) the idea that Roswell was a Soviet ruse; and (B) the theory that the bodies found at the crash-site might have been biologically altered or mutated by the Russians.

The story told by John, and published by me in late-2010, is astonishingly close to the one provided to Jacobsen. The big difference, of course, is that Jacobsen's Area 51 source believed the Russian theory, while the originators of the files read by John at Area 51 clearly did not accept it as having any validity.

But, that such files did apparently exist at Area 51, and did refer to both the Russian hoax angle and the issue of genetically altering human beings, does make me think that this Russian-themed story/theory was indeed in circulation amongst Area 51 personnel at some point decades ago.

And maybe some who were exposed to the files, to the rumors, and (as John speculated as a possibility) to some weird loyalty-testing mind-game, came to accept the Russian story as being utterly genuine; when in reality the truth may have been very diferent.

This controversy, I suspect, is far from over...

5 comments:

cda said...

What is going on Nick?

How do you know what John's superiors believed or what the documents contain (if they ever existed)? You say the stories told by O'Donnell and John are "astonishingly" similar. Isn't this what you would expect if they had either both heard the same rumors (from some rumor-spreader) or maybe had read your body-snatchers book? Do you know if John had in fact read your book?
Did you ask him?

We first heard of stories emanating from Area 51 from Bob Lazar c. 1989. He was discredited soon after. These later sources sound as if they are merely adding bits of gossip here and there to Lazar's tale, or embellishing the issue further by adding the Nazi/Russian connection to confound and confuse genuine researchers like yourself.

Where are these documents? I refuse to believe they exist or ever did. What is John's full name?

You are right, the controversy is far from over. But in the end (whenever that is) we will all be left with a big fat zero. That much is so obvious.

I remind you that Roswell and its supposed ET craft/bodies originated in 1980 with the Berlitz-Moore book. I opine that each and every new twist we get on this Roswell saga originated post-1980 (more likely post-1990) and had nothing whatever to do with the real top secret goings-on at Area 51 in the 1940s or 1950s.

Nick Redfern said...

CDA:

How do I know what the documents contained? Fron what John told me.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that within Ufology, there are numerous people who claim to have read highly classified files on UFOs. And at the end of the day, a claim is just a claim when there's no hard evidence.

Where John differed, however, is in the sense that he didn't believe the content of the files was vaild.

As I noted in my post, he suspected he was exposed to utterly bogus material to test his loyalty.

That's what I found interesting about his story - he wasn't trying to convince me there were aliens at Area 51 (or anywhere). And he wasn't trying to convince me the documents told a true story. In fact, the opposite.

Yes, he had read Body Snatchers, and he contacted me because he found it intriguing that (in his opinion) as with his experience at Area 51 (but in a different way) my book suggested the UFO subject had been manipulated for obscure psy-op purposes.

I made a promise not to reveal his full name. But 2 other researchers/authors have interviewed him and my understanding they (for a forthcoming book) have made no such promise - so as with O'Donnell he'll be public domain soon - although not willingly.

Where are the documents? I have no idea and neither does he. His experience occurred in early 1971 - more than 40 years ago.

From your first full-length paragraph in your comment, you seem to be implying that the content of my Body Snatchers book would have a bearing on him contacting me because of this Russian hoax/biologically mutated people. Am I correct in that assumption?

If yes, I don't know why. I know you have not read Body Snatchers, so that may explain it.

But, despite what many have said at forums, discussion lists etc, my book says NOTHING about biologically mutated people. Nor does it even involved handicapped people found at Roswell!

What my book actually says (but which has been misinterpreted by many) is two things: (A) that in May 1947, somewhere in NM, several high-altitude balloon experiments were undertaken involving 3 or 4 physically handicapped people, and that in later years became linked with the legend of Roswell 2 months later; and (B) that the Roswell crash itself involved a large balloon array that had suspended below it a flying-wing, glider-type craft that was piloted by a TRAINED CREW - nothing handicapped about them at all!

You may find the above surprising given that people have claimed i have said things like deformed bodies were found at Roswell. I have never said that. Neither does my book.

My book points out there were allegedly several expeirments in mid-47 New Mexico - the high-altitude balloon events of May, and the Roswell event of July.

The former allegedly involving handicapped people, the latter an entirely normal crew. But that over time, the tales fused, because both projects involved some of the same people, as it all fell under a banner to exploit Japanese balloon-based technology.

Nick Redfern said...

As a follow-up, to my last comment: I do find int intriguing that John openly told me there were rumours afoot at Area 51 in 1971 that back in 47 someone had addressed the possibility of Roswell being a Russian hoax with biologically altered people.

That this (published in 2010) is practically identical to what Jacobsen was told, leads me to believe that her source may have seen files that could have been related to those seen by John, but that Jacobsen's source bought the story, and John concluded it was a loyalty-testing fabrication.

Curt Collins said...

"loyalty-testing fabrication"

Wasn't there a similar scenario with "robert" described in Cosmic Crashes?

Nick Redfern said...

Yeah, there's definitely a similarity with the story of Robert. You may recall from CC that the story of Robert came from Jenny Randles, who personally met with him in 1986. I interviewed Randles in 1997 for my CC book about her meeting with Robert and what he told her, but I did'nt have chance to meet him in person unfortunately, as (11 years after she met him) the trail had gone cold and she had no more contact with him.