UFOs and Nukes

[Robert Hastings]

Researcher and Author Robert Hastings’ new book

UFOs and Nukes:
Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites

On July 18, 2008, noted UFO researcher Robert Hastings appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live to discuss his 35-year investigation of UFO sightings at U.S. nuclear weapons installations during the Cold War era, including those at strategic missile sites operated by five different U.S. Air Force bases.

Utilizing declassified USAF, FBI and CIA documents, as well as the testimony of nearly 100 Air Force veterans who worked with nukes, Hastings has discovered a six-decade-long pattern of UFO activity at nuclear weapons laboratories, bomb test sites, weapons storage areas, and ICBM launch facilities.

According to Hastings’ former or retired U.S. Air Force sources, on at least six occasions in the 1960s and ‘70s, several Minuteman missiles simultaneously malfunctioned just as UFOs were reported to be in their vicinity by USAF security guards. Missile maintenance personnel later determined that the stricken ICBMs exhibited various hardware and software failures, related to their guidance and control systems. In short, had war with the Soviets erupted, the missiles were temporarily incapable of being launched. Obviously, U.S. national security was seriously compromised.

According to Hastings’ sources, these missile shutdown incidents were immediately classified at a high level and many of the key personnel involved in them were sworn to secrecy. Only now, decades later, are these individuals willing to come forward to tell their amazing stories.

Upon request, Hastings will provide interested journalists with contact information for several of these veteran “missileers.” One of them, Robert L. Salas, has already addressed the National Press Club on two occasions, in 2001 and 2007, in an effort to publicize this important story.

Another former launch officer interviewed by Hastings, David H. Schuur—who was stationed at Minot AFB, North Dakota in the mid-1960s—states that several of his Minuteman ICBMs were actually activated and temporarily placed in launch mode, just as his security guards reported a UFO moving from missile to missile.

Schuur states that he and his missile commander had to manually override the launch command in each missile. A nearly identical incident occurred in Soviet Ukraine, in October 1982, according to retired Soviet Army officers interviewed in 1994 by ABC-TV (later CNN) reporter David Ensor.

Many of the declassified USAF and FBI documents utilized by Hastings refer to UFOs repeatedly violating highly sensitive airspace at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where nuclear weapons are designed, and at Sandia Base (now Sandia National Laboratories) which has engineered nukes since the 1940s. Other documents report UFO activity at Oak Ridge, the Hanford Plant, and the Savannah River Plant, all of which produced fissile materials for U.S. nuclear bombs and missile warheads during the Cold War era.

Hastings contends that there exists a credible link between the appearance of nuclear weapons in the mid-1940s, and the overall increase in UFO sightings worldwide since that time. Moreover, he believes it is probable that one of the reasons the U.S. government has attempted to conceal its extensive knowledge of the UFO phenomenon relates to its concern about publicly acknowledging that unknown observers, piloting enormously superior aerial craft, have been systematically monitoring—and occasionally tampering with—our nuclear weapons.

Since 1981, Hastings has lectured on the UFO-Nukes Connection at over 500 colleges and universities nationwide, including Stanford University, in 1987. His program, “UFOs: The Hidden History” has been popularly and critically acclaimed for its documented, objective approach. “I am not condemning any government agency for its policy of secrecy regarding UFOs,” says Hastings, “but I believe that American citizens, and people everywhere, should be given the facts.”

Hastings’ 581-page book, UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, is now available at ufohastings.com. For a taste, google, "Launch in Progress!" or "Like a Diamond in the Sky".

 

[Robert Hastings]

REPORTER DUPED BY UFO DEBUNKERS

By Robert Hastings


On August 11, 2008, I sat down with Albuquerque Journal reporter John Fleck to discuss my extensive research on nuclear weapons-related UFO activity and the publication of my 600-page book, UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites. Over the last 35 years, I have interviewed nearly 100 former or retired U.S. Air Force nuclear missile personnel, including launch officers, targeting officers, maintenance personnel and security guards. These individuals report ongoing UFO surveillance of our strategic weapons sites, as well as the occasional disruption of those weapons’ functionality, just after UFOs were observed to be in their vicinity.

To verify these veterans’ statements to me, I provided reporter Fleck with copies of verbatim testimony from a few of them, a copy of my book which contained the testimony of a great many more, and four pages of USAF/NORAD documents, declassified via the Freedom of Information Act, which describe multiple UFO incursions at Minuteman missile sites outside of Malmstrom AFB, Montana, in November 1975.

In spite of this well-documented presentation, Fleck subsequently wrote an exceedingly biased and dismissive article about my research, titled “Book Links UFOs to Nukes,” in the August 25, 2008 issue of the Journal, which concluded that my contentions of a UFO-Nukes Connection were “wrong” based on the statements of “independent experts.” More on those alleged experts in a moment.

During my interview with him, Fleck told me that he was especially interested in the so-called Big Sur UFO case. which I will now briefly summarize: Early one morning in September 1964, an Atlas D Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California, carrying aloft an experimental enemy radar-defeating system and dummy nuclear warhead. Shortly after nosecone-separation, as the warhead raced toward a targeted splash-down at Eniwetok Lagoon, in the Pacific Ocean, it was approached by a disc-shaped UFO. As the saucer chased and then circled the warhead, four bright flashes of light emanated from the unknown craft whereupon the warhead began to tumble, eventually falling into the ocean hundreds of miles short of its intended target downrange.

Science fiction? Not according to the former USAF officer tasked with filming the Atlas launch through a high-powered telescope located at Big Sur, California. Then Lt. (now Dr.) Bob Jacobs—who was assigned to the 1369th Photographic Squadron at Vandenberg, and held the title Officer-in-Charge of Photo-instrumentation—states that the entire encounter was captured on motion picture film. According to Jacobs, while the UFO’s maneuvers were readily discernable, other minute details—including the object’s domed disc-shape—were only discovered during a in-depth optical analysis conducted at Vandenberg.

Following the dramatic incident, says Jacobs, a 16-mm version of the amazing film was shown to a small, select group at Vandenberg. At the conclusion of this meeting, which he attended, he was told to “forget” the filmed events and to never mention them again. Years later, Jacobs learned that after he left the room, the crucial frames were cut out and quickly confiscated by two “government agents”—possibly working for the CIA—who had been among those in attendance.

Importantly, Jacobs’ account—relating to both the UFO incident itself and the subsequent cover-up—has been entirely endorsed by another officer, retired Major (later Dr.) Florenze J. Mansmann, Jr. At the time, Mansmann had been assigned to Vandenberg AFB’s Office of the Chief Scientist, 1st Strategic Aerospace Division. It was Mansmann who had carefully analyzed the amazing film which, he said, showed a “classic disc” shaped object circling the dummy warhead, shooting four beams of light at the warhead as it did so. It was also Mansmann who had ordered Lt. Jacobs to attend the restricted screening of the film in his office at the division’s headquarters building.

Because reporter Fleck expressed interest in this case, I provided him with copies of private correspondence between Jacobs and Mansmann, from the early 1980s. In those letters, Jacobs and Mansmann were obviously still stunned by, and marveling over, the Big Sur UFO incident—some 20 years later. It is important to note that this correspondence was never intended for publication, to support the validity of the case. Rather, it represents the private musings of two former USAF officers—involved and knowledgeable insiders—who had experienced what was obviously a life-changing event for each of them.

At the conclusion of my interview with Fleck, he told me that he would be contacting Kendrick Frazier, the longtime editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine—which has for decades featured articles debunking UFOs and the notion of a U.S. government UFO cover-up—to get Frazier’s point-of-view on the Big Sur case. Skeptical Inquirer is the publication of the self-styled Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) which recently renamed itself the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).

One of the articles published by the debunking magazine, written by Kingston George, an engineer who worked with Bob Jacobs on the telescope project at Vandenberg AFB, claimed that Jacobs’ statements about having filmed a UFO shooting down a dummy nuclear warhead were just “ weird claims” having no basis in reality.

However, when I researched the Big Sur case myself, I discovered that George had badly misrepresented Jacobs’ remarks, repeatedly, and had made other crucial factual errors. Indeed, if one compares his article with Jacobs’ and Mansmann’s published and private statements on the Big Sur incident, it becomes glaringly obvious how erroneous and misleading George’s article really is. Nevertheless, Skeptical Inquirer editor Frazier published the badly-flawed piece, apparently without comparing George’s claims about what Jacobs’ supposedly had said with what he actually had said. Curiously, George’s debunking article contains not a single word about Major Mansmann’s unequivocal endorsement of Jacobs’ account.

Frazier subsequently included Kingston George’s badly-flawed article in one of his own books devoted to debunking UFOs, thereby further disseminating George’s misstatements and factual errors to an unsuspecting public. Incompetence all around, at the very least, on the part of the debunkers—if not something more suspicious. As I write in my book,

“I consider it noteworthy that George’s article was published in CSICOP’s in-house magazine, Skeptical Inquirer. At first glance, this is hardly surprising, given CSICOP’s tireless crusade to discredit UFOs. However, because the Big Sur incident reportedly involved a UFO disabling—shooting down—one of the U.S. military’s experimental nuclear warhead systems, Skeptical Inquirer’s strong endorsement of George’s attempted debunking of the incident is particularly interesting.

Why? Many years ago, I discovered that Kendrick Frazier was in fact employed—beginning in the early 1980s—as a Public Relations Specialist at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yes, the same Sandia Labs that has been instrumental to the success of America’s nuclear weapons program since the late 1940s, through its “ordinance engineering” of components for bomb and missile warhead systems.

Interestingly, Skeptical Inquirer's publisher's statement, or “masthead”, which appears at the beginning of each issue, never once mentioned Frazier's employment at the highly-secretive, government-funded laboratory. Instead, the magazine merely listed, and continues to list, his profession as "science writer"—a reference to his having written several books and articles on various scientific subjects. Also curious is the fact that various online biographies on Frazier—including one written by himself—also fail to mention his two-decade tenure at Sandia Labs. An odd omission indeed.

Consequently, here is the situation: In what is arguably the most dramatic nuclear weapons-related UFO incident ever revealed, two former U.S. Air Force officers insist that one of our experimental nuclear warheads was actually shot down by a flying saucer. And who is responsible for publishing the first debunking article about the Big Sur incident, in which it is claimed that the UFO encounter never happened? Why, a PR guy working for the U.S. government’s nuclear weapons program!

…Ironically, over the years, a great many UFO skeptics have used the supposedly accurate “facts” presented in George’s article to dismiss the UFO link with nuclear weapons in general, and the Big Sur UFO Incident in particular. Needless to say, very few of those same skeptics will ever buy a book called, UFOs and Nukes, so they will mistakenly continue to believe that Kingston George’s article is the last word on the Big Sur case.

Furthermore, the CSICOP-Nukes Connection does not end with Kendrick Frazier. James Oberg, one of CSICOP’s leading UFO debunkers, once did classified work relating to nuclear weapons at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, located at Kirtland AFB, just down the road from Sandia Labs.

From 1970-72, Oberg was an Air Force officer whose assignments with the Battle Environments Branch at the weapons lab involved the development and utilization of computer codes related to the modeling of laser and nuclear weapons. Oberg also served as a “Security Officer” while at the weapons lab and was, therefore, responsible for monitoring the security procedures used to safeguard the classified documents generated by his group.

After Bob Jacobs went public with the UFO shoot-down story, Oberg wrote to him, chastising Jacobs for revealing “top secret” information. In his MUFON UFO Journal article, Jacobs wrote that after he broke his silence, “I was contacted by a variety of investigators, buffs, cranks, proponents and detractors alike. James Oberg, a frequent ‘mouthpiece’ for certain NASA projects and self-styled UFO Debunker wrote to disparage my story and to ask provocatively, ‘Since you obviously feel free to discuss top secret UFO data, what would you be willing to say about other top secret aspects of the Atlas warhead which you alluded to briefly...?’ I told Mr. Oberg where to put his misplaced cynicism.”
Despite Oberg’s charge, Jacobs has correctly pointed out that because Major Mansmann had told him that the UFO encounter “never happened”, he had no personal knowledge of the classification level attached to the incident.
In any event, it is almost certain that Oberg would not have criticized Jacobs for exposing “top secret UFO data”, had he known that Jacobs would subsequently publish his remark. So, here we have one of CSICOP’s leading UFO debunkers—whose public stance is that UFOs don’t even exist—angrily asking Jacobs in a private letter whether he would also openly discuss “other” top secret aspects of the missile test…
For his part, CSICOP’s chief UFO-debunker, the late Philip J. Klass, aggressively hounded Dr. Jacobs after he published the warhead shoot-down story, going so far as to write a derisive letter to Jacobs’ department chairman—Dr. R. Steven Craig, Department of Journalism and Broadcasting, University of Maine—in which Klass accusingly questioned professor Jacobs’ fitness as a representative of the academic community.

Jacobs’ understandably indignant response to Klass, titled, Low Klass: A Rejoinder, may be found online. It is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand the behind-the-scenes battle that ensued after Jacobs went public with the UFO incident.

Among other subjects, the rejoinder touches on acrimonious correspondence between Jacobs and Klass. At one point, after Dr. Jacobs ignored Klass’ repeated demands that he respond to the debunker’s charges, Klass offered character references, citing Admiral Bobby R. Inman (USN Ret.)—the former Director of the National Security Agency, who also held Deputy Director positions at both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency—and Lt. General Daniel O. Graham (USA Ret.), the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Klass not only provided Jacobs with their names, but home addresses as well, and told him, “Both men have worked with me and gotten to know me in my efforts for Aviation Week."
The character references provided by Klass are certainly interesting, given his stock response over the years to those who questioned his motives. Whenever he was confronted with the charge that he was not really a UFO skeptic, but a disinformation agent for the U.S. government, Klass would always recoil indignantly and ridicule the notion. So who does he choose to present as character references in his letter to Jacobs? Two of the top intelligence officers in the U.S. government.”
Major Florenze Mansmann’s last written remarks on the Big Sur UFO incident are to be found in a letter to Curt Collier, a producer for the television series, Sightings. Dated November 15, 1995, the letter began, “Dear Mr. Collier, Responding to your Fed Ex letter of November 14, 1995 regarding the validity of the January 1989 MUFON [UFO] Journal story by Dr. Robert Jacobs, it is all true as presented. And yes, I have also responded to other researchers in the past, but only after Dr. Jacobs released the details of these sightings [sic] negating my secrecy bond.”

Mansmann continued, “The Image Orthicon camera system we used in capturing the Unidentified Flying Object on film had the capacity to photograph the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the missile launch and its super sonic flight...In retrospect, I now regret not being able to evaluate the film for more than 3 showings. The only people in attendance of the viewing were: The Director of the Office of the Chief Scientist and his assistant, two Government Agents, Lieutenant Jacobs and myself. [i.e. Kingston George was NOT present! –RH] The two Government Agents confiscated the film and placed it in a briefcase and departed after I had checked their authorization to leave with the film. I was instructed later by the Office of the Chief Scientist, the Judge Advocate General’s office and my Commanding Officer to consider the incident top secret.” Mansmann concluded his letter to Collier, “I am writing to confirm Dr. Jacobs’ account...”

In other words, more than 30 years after the top secret incident and more than six years after Jacobs’ article appeared in the MUFON UFO Journal, Dr. Mansmann was once again unreservedly verifying Bob Jacobs’ report of a UFO shooting down a dummy nuclear warhead over the Pacific Ocean, in September 1964.

Florenz J. Mansmann, Jr. died on July 4, 2000, but he remained adamant to the end that the extraordinary encounter—involving an extraterrestrial spacecraft—had occurred and was classified Top Secret.

My own definitive, extremely well-documented article on the Big Sur incident is available at my website, ufohastings.com. Had reporter John Fleck read it, or the Jacobs-Mansmann letters I provided him, before he wrote his inept and biased article on my research, he would have saved himself a lot of criticism and embarrassment.

Although Fleck knows almost nothing about UFOs, he seems unwilling to learn about the subject, even when provided with credible and documented information derived from declassified government files and the testimony of former military personnel. Instead, he readily swallows the unfounded and suspiciously spun claims of Frazier, Oberg and their ilk—hook, line and sinker. In short, Fleck is the perfect mark—uninformed and vulnerable to misinformation—just the way UFO debunkers prefer their journalists to be.

--Robert Hastings
ufohastings.com
hastings444@att.net

 

[Robert Hastings]

CSICOP, now CSI:

UFO Debunkers Kendrick Frazier and James Oberg

From Robert Hastings’ book
UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites



(This is Part 2 of an earlier posting, titled, “Reporter Duped by UFO Debunkers”, in which I described how Albuquerque Journal reporter John Fleck was badly misled about the reality of UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites, by two of the leading UFO debunkers affiliated with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, who dismissed my own well-documented findings.)

Over the years, I have found that a great many of the debunkers in my UFO lecture audiences had one thing in common: they had read one or more of the supposedly objective articles on UFOs which routinely appear in Skeptical Inquirer magazine, published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)—which has recently renamed itself the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).

Although most of the debunkers I encounter tout Skeptical Inquirer as a source of credible, scientific information on UFOs—which it is not—when I question them, I find that virtually none of these UFO critics know anything about those responsible for publishing this “skeptical” magazine. I, on the other hand, made it my business long ago to find out exactly who was so intent on fervently debunking UFOs, year after year, decade after decade. I must say, what I discovered surprised me. At the same time, I was not at all surprised.

As noted in an earlier posting, the Executive Editor of Skeptical Inquirer is Kendrick C. Frazier. Many years ago, I discovered that Frazier was in fact employed—beginning in the early 1980s—as a Public Relations Specialist at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yes, the same Sandia Labs that has been instrumental to the success of America’s nuclear weapons program since the late 1940s, through its “ordinance engineering” of components for bomb and missile warhead systems.

In my opinion, Frazier’s affiliation with Sandia Labs—he recently retired after working there for over two decades—is highly significant, given the hundreds of references in declassified government documents, and in the many statements by former military personnel, which address ongoing UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites over the past six decades.

Considering these disclosures—which clearly establish a link between UFOs and nuclear weapons—I find it interesting, to say the least, that the longtime editor of the leading debunking magazine—whose pages routinely feature articles discrediting UFOs and those who report them—worked for over 20 years as a public relations spokesman for one of the leading nuclear weapons labs in the United States.

Interestingly, Skeptical Inquirer's publisher's statement, or “masthead”, which appears at the beginning of each issue, never once mentioned Frazier's employment at the highly-secretive, government-funded laboratory. Instead, the magazine merely listed, and continues to list, his profession as "science writer"—a reference to his having written several books and articles on various scientific subjects. Also curious is the fact that various online biographies on Frazier—including one written by himself—also fail to mention his two-decade tenure at Sandia Labs. An odd omission indeed.

Over the years, Frazier has been quick to dismiss the astonishing revelations about UFOs contained in government documents declassified via the Freedom of Information Act. He claims that researchers who have accessed thousands of U.S. Air Force, CIA, and FBI files have consistently misrepresented their contents. In one interview he stated, “The UFO believers don't give you a clear and true idea of what these government documents reveal. They exaggerate the idea that there is a big UFO cover-up.”

Just as Frazier strives to minimize the significance of the declassified revelations about UFOs, it is likely he will also attempt to downplay the relevancy of his former employment with one of the U.S. government's top nuclear weapons labs, as it pertained to his magazine's relentless debunking of UFOs. He will presumably assert that his skeptical views on the subject are personal and sincere, and were in no way related to, or influenced by, his public relations position at Sandia National Laboratories.

However, regardless of his response, I believe that Frazier’s long-term employment at Sandia is very relevant, and raises questions about his impartiality, if nothing else, given his long track-record of publishing stridently anti-UFO articles in Skeptical Inquirer.

One such article, an attempted debunking of the Big Sur UFO Incident, was earlier discussed at length. As noted, two former U.S. Air Force officers have unequivocally stated that, during a 1964 weapon systems test, a UFO disabled an experimental dummy nuclear warhead in mid-flight as it raced downrange toward its intended target. My own well-documented investigation of the dramatic incident has now thoroughly discredited the factually-inaccurate article by Kingston A. George featured earlier in Skeptical Inquirer. If one compares the first-person accounts provided by the two former Air Force officers with the badly-flawed, highly-misleading synopsis of the incident published by Sandia Labs PR Specialist Frazier, one might reasonably ask whether a cover-up of sorts—a disinformation scheme—was behind the debunking article. But the reader may judge for him- or herself.

Furthermore, the CSICOP-Nukes Connection does not end with Kendrick Frazier. James Oberg, one of CSICOP’s leading UFO debunkers, once did classified work relating to nuclear weapons at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, located on Kirtland AFB, less than a mile from Sandia Labs. From 1970-72, Oberg was an Air Force officer whose assignments with the Battle Environments Branch at the weapons lab involved the development and utilization of computer codes related to the modeling of laser and nuclear weapons—according to one of Oberg’s own online resumes.

Oberg had also been a “Security Officer” while at the weapons lab, meaning that he was responsible for monitoring the security procedures used to safeguard the classified documents generated by his group. As I discuss in my chapter on the Big Sur UFO Incident, Oberg once privately chastised Dr. Bob Jacobs—one of the former Air Force officers who leaked the amazing story—for releasing “top secret” information relating to the case. Once a security officer, always a security officer, I guess.

After Bob Jacobs went public with the UFO shoot-down story, Oberg wrote to him, chastising Jacobs for revealing “top secret” information. In his MUFON UFO Journal article, Jacobs wrote that after he broke his silence, “I was contacted by a variety of investigators, buffs, cranks, proponents and detractors alike. James Oberg, a frequent ‘mouthpiece’ for certain NASA projects and self-styled UFO Debunker wrote to disparage my story and to ask provocatively, ‘Since you obviously feel free to discuss top secret UFO data, what would you be willing to say about other top secret aspects of the Atlas warhead which you alluded to briefly...?’ I told Mr. Oberg where to put his misplaced cynicism.”
Despite Oberg’s charge, Jacobs has correctly pointed out that because Major Mansmann had told him that the UFO encounter “never happened”, he had no personal knowledge of the classification level attached to the incident.
In any event, it is almost certain that Oberg would not have criticized Jacobs for exposing “top secret UFO data”, had he known that Jacobs would subsequently publish his remark. So, here we have one of CSICOP’s leading UFO debunkers—whose public stance is that UFOs don’t even exist—angrily asking Jacobs in a private letter whether he would also openly discuss “other” top secret aspects of the missile test…

I first became aware of Oberg’s “skeptical” stance on UFOs after he wrote an article for the December 1978 issue of OMNI magazine, in a column called “UFO Update”. A superficial review of Oberg’s comments in that article might lend the impression that he was even-handedly covering the UFO controversy. Far from it. A closer examination reveals Oberg’s subtle but persistent use of anti-UFO propaganda, not to mention his failure to identify himself to OMNI’s readers as an active-duty Air Force officer.

Fortunately, these tactics and omissions did not go unnoticed. In the following issue of OMNI, in a letter to the editor, Robert Barrow wrote, “C’mon James Oberg. If you plan to continue writing your skeptical UFO articles under the guise of proper scientific literature, please be fair. First, the OMNI readership should be aware that not only are you working with NASA but you are a U.S. Air Force officer in fine standing as well. In fact, while I knew you as Captain Oberg, I shouldn’t doubt you are now Major Oberg. As a former USAF staff sergeant, I can appreciate that and wish to congratulate you if you have achieved a higher rank...Your consistently skeptical articles are probably making some of your superiors far happier than anything you might write to the contrary...”

Not surprisingly, Oberg’s published response to Barrow’s letter rejected the inference that he was writing skeptical articles about UFOs to please his superiors. He wrote, “...I don’t have any idea what my Air Force superiors think about my UFO activity, since I have never had any directives, one way or another. It’s easy to reject any unwelcome opinions as part of a ‘government plot’, and you’re welcomed to that paranoia if it suits you. It also is a direct smear on my honesty and motives…”

Well, first, Barrow did not say that Oberg was a part of any government plot. He was merely pointing out that, given the longstanding controversy over the U.S. Air Force’s handing of the UFO problem, Oberg should have candidly acknowledged his affiliation with the Air Force in his OMNI article—in which he debunked UFOs, exactly as the Air Force had for decades. As such, Barrow’s comment was a perfectly valid criticism. I might also note here that Oberg’s failure to inform OMNI’s readers about his active-duty military status—until after it had been exposed by Barrow—is reminiscent of Kendrick Frazer’s own failure to inform Skeptical Inquirer’s readers of his two-decade-long affiliation with the U.S. government’s nuclear weapons program—in the magazine’s masthead, which appears in each issue—at the same time he was publishing article after article debunking UFOs, including at least one highly important sighting directly related to nuclear weapons.

Moreover, Oberg’s indignation over being “smeared” by Barrow is laughable, given his own countless public attacks on UFO proponents over the years, in which he frequently questions the sincerity and motives of those who report or investigate UFOs.

In another letter responding to Oberg’s article, journalist Terry Hansen, wrote, “How sad to see such a poor article on UFOs in OMNI’s first issue. James Oberg is certainly [not an objective] authority on the subject. His article tries to come across as unbiased, but even someone with a superficial knowledge of the issue can see that it is laced with distortion and innuendo...If ‘UFO Update’ is representative of the type of coverage controversial issues will receive in the future, then OMNI has little to offer a questioning mind.”

Years later, Hansen later went on to write an excellent book titled, The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up, which I highly recommend to anyone wishing to better understand how the type of information contained in my own book could have been successfully kept from the American people—scientists and laypersons alike—for so long. In fact, I put Hansen’s book on my short list of “must-reads” as far as the official government cover-up of UFOs is concerned.

Part 3 of my examination of CSICOP/CSI will be posted in the near future.

--Robert Hastings
ufohastings.com
Hastings444@att.net

 

[Robert Hastings]

CSICOP, now CSI:

CSI’s “Scientific” Analysis of UFOs: Thanks, but No Thanks!

Another excerpt from Robert Hastings’ book
UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites


(This is Part 3 of an earlier posting, titled, “Reporter Duped by UFO Debunkers” in which I described how Albuquerque Journal reporter John Fleck was badly misled about the reality of UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites, by two of the leading UFO debunkers affiliated with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), who dismissed my own well-documented findings.)

I earlier mentioned journalist Terry Hansen’s excellent book, The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up, which I highly recommend to anyone wishing to better understand how the type of information contained in my own book could have been successfully kept from the American people—scientists and laypersons alike—for so long.

Regarding CSICOP [now CSI], Hansen examines the possibility that the skeptical organization was infiltrated early on by a small but determined group of U.S. government-affiliated operatives, whose true motives have far more to do with disinformation than skepticism. He writes, “[The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal] is an organization of people who oppose what they contend is pseudo-science...CSICOP, contrary to its impressive-sounding title, does not sponsor scientific research. On the contrary, it’s main function has been to oppose scientific research, especially in areas such as psychic phenomena and UFOs, two topics that, coincidentally or not, have been of demonstrated interest to the U.S. intelligence community over the decades. Instead, CSICOP devotes nearly all of its resources to influencing the American public via the mass media.”

Hansen continues, “CSICOP can accurately be described as a propaganda organization because it does not take anything approaching an objective position regarding UFOs. The organization’s stance is militantly anti-UFO research and it works hard to see that the news media broadcast its views whenever possible. When the subject of UFOs surfaces, either in the news media or any other public forum, CSICOP members turn out rapidly to add their own spin to whatever is being said. Through its “Council for Media Integrity” CSICOP maintains close ties with the editorial staffs of such influential science publications as Scientific American, Nature, and New Scientist. Consequently, it’s not too hard to understand why balanced UFO articles seldom appear in those [magazines].”

Hansen further notes, “CSICOP’s public stance on UFOs is best personified by [the late] Philip J. Klass, head of the organization’s UFO Subcommittee. Klass isn’t a scientist. In fact, his education is in electrical engineering. After graduation from Iowa State University in 1941, he went to work for the avionics division of General Electric, one of the nation’s largest weapons and nuclear energy contractors. In 1952, Klass joined the aerospace trade publication Aviation Week & Space Technology, where he has often written about ‘black budget’ military projects such as those covertly funded by the CIA...Over the decades, Klass has made a name for himself publicly sparring with UFO researchers and injecting his particular spin on UFOs into the mass media at every opportunity, not always accurately or with much scientific merit...Despite his lack of scientific credentials, Klass has enjoyed remarkable popularity with the news media.”

Hansen might have added that Klass’ long-time employer, Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine, has a remarkable track-record of scooping its competition by publishing articles based, in part, on information provided by government insiders. Indeed, Aviation Week may be considered as a conduit to the public for information originating from many of the key players in the aptly-named military/industrial complex.

To illustrate the rather cozy relationship between the magazine and the intelligence community, in particular, I earlier noted that Klass once boasted in a private letter that he could cite as character references both Admiral Bobby R. Inman (USN Ret.)—the former Director of the National Security Agency, who also held Deputy Director positions at both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency—and Lt. General Daniel O. Graham (USA Ret.), the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In the letter, Klass stated that “Both men have worked with me and gotten to know me [through] my efforts for Aviation Week.”

Hansen, whose diligent journalistic investigation of CSICOP goes well beyond that conducted by any UFO researcher, observes, “If the [CIA’s] Robertson Panel had wanted to set up a front organization to debunk the UFO phenomenon, it could have hardly done a better job than to infiltrate CSICOP and encourage its media management activities. Perhaps its not surprising, then, that Philip Klass has occasionally been charged with being a covert government agent, a charge he has vigorously denied...”

Hansen goes on to note that during a 1994 confrontation with Klass, at a CSICOP meeting in Seattle, the UFO debunker first said that an official UFO cover-up would not be possible because the U.S. government could not keep such an important secret. When Hansen challenged that assertion, and cited examples of other important secrets which the government had successfully kept from public view—such as decades-old cryptographic-related programs—Klass apparently reversed himself and admitted that some secrets could indeed be kept long-term. Then, in what was arguably a very telling comment, Klass told Hansen that some secrets should be kept, for reasons relating to national security. He went on to mention that his employer, Aviation Week, had once agreed to keep secret its knowledge of the SR-71 spy plane, at the government’s request. If nothing else, this admission by Klass only further illustrates the magazine’s cooperative, mutually-beneficial relationship with the various agencies and departments of the U.S. government—in which one hand washes the other, so to speak.

“So,” Hanson summarized, “under cross-examination, Klass had gone from claiming the government can’t keep secrets to saying that it can, it must, and even that his own publication had been complicit in keeping government secrets. Klass did not appear very happy about the course this conversation had taken and he soon reverted back to his [initial] claim that UFOs did not exist...A charitable view of Klass is that he is simply a zealot, another of those for whom scientific dogma supplies the reassuring psychological bedrock that others find in religious fundamentalism. When confronted with evidence that calls into question his core beliefs, Klass responds—as any fundamentalist would—by rejecting the evidence. Thus, his duplicity can be accounted for by human nature. One does not need to resort to more conspiratorial explanations.”

“On the other hand,” Hanson continued, “Klass also has many of the qualifications one would expect in a deep-cover propagandist. He has a history of working for the secretive military-industrial complex, a demonstrated aptitude for duplicity, a District of Columbia address, remarkable mass-media savvy and success, an evident belief in the necessity of government secrecy and, of course, cover as a journalist with Aviation Week.”

Hanson has much more to say in his book regarding the U.S. government’s routine use of the mass media to spin or suppress information it wishes to keep from the public. The Missing Times is a remarkably well-documented exposé and should be read by UFO proponents, skeptics and debunkers alike, not to mention any American citizen who has ever suspected that the news offered by the national media—the “free press”—is not always what it appears to be.

My own opinion regarding CSICOP (or, now, CSI) is that if one is going to accept at face-value the many unfounded and dismissive claims about UFOs made by some of the key members of this “skeptical” organization, one should at least be aware of those persons’ longstanding professional affiliations with the U.S. government or government-influenced publications. To summarize:

Kendrick Frazier: Employed as a Public Relations Specialist, for more than two decades, at Sandia National Laboratories, one of the U.S. government’s leading nuclear weapons labs. During the same period, Frazier served as Executive Editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, a position he continues to hold today.

James Oberg: A former U.S. Air Force officer who once did classified work related to nuclear weapons, and a long-time employee of NASA. Before his retirement, Oberg worked on the Space Shuttle program (1975-97); he currently serves as a space science consultant for NBC News and continues to promote his anti-UFO position.

Philip Klass: Now deceased, Klass was employed, for over two decades, at a U.S. intelligence community-friendly aerospace publication. By his own admission, Klass had developed close professional ties with at least two top-level intelligence officers—U.S. Navy Admiral Bobby Inman and U.S. Army General Daniel Graham—both of whom held, at various times, high-ranking positions with the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and/or the National Security Agency.

Well, call me paranoid, but I think I see a pattern here. For an organization ostensibly created to scientifically investigate paranormal subjects, including UFOs, CSICOP—especially its UFO Subcommittee—seems to be completely lacking in UFO experts with truly scientific credentials, but is conspicuously top-heavy with individuals having U.S. government connections, of one kind or another. The reader may draw his or her own conclusions but, personally, I believe that one would be well-advised to assiduously avoid the highly-suspect spin regularly offered up by the UFO “experts” at CSICOP/CSI and, instead, consult other, genuine sources of scientifically-credible information on UFOs.

Let me be clear: I am not accusing the leading UFO debunkers affiliated with CSICOP/CSI and its publication Skeptical Inquirer of being government-sanctioned covert agents, or even UFO cover-up sympathizers—“assets” in intelligence parlance—who have engaged in a disinformation campaign designed to discredit UFOs, as well as those who report or investigate them. The reason I am not accusing them is because I have no proof to back up my personal mistrust of their motives.

However, having said that, I do make the observation that most of CSICOP’s leading UFO debunkers—that is, those who have served as members of the organization’s staff—share a very interesting and, I would argue, rather suspicious camaraderie relating to their professional backgrounds.

For whatever reason, these individuals are intent on claiming that there are no UFOs and, therefore, no U.S. government cover-up of them. In view of their rather interesting affiliations, I merely ask: Wouldn’t Kendrick Frazier’s statements be more credible had he not spent his career doing public relations work for the U.S. government’s nuclear weapons program? Shouldn’t Philip Klass—having worked for more than two decades as a journalist for one of the U.S. intelligence community’s most valued media conduits—been more carefully scrutinized by the media, for a conflict of interest, when he tirelessly insisted that there is no government UFO cover-up? Even James Oberg’s own classified nuclear weapons-related work while with the Air Force, as well as his later involvement with the U.S. government’s space program, seems to fit this pattern of direct or indirect governmental ties on the part of those who ostensibly dismiss UFOs on purely scientific grounds, but who seem arguably more intent on dismissing the notion that there is an official UFO cover-up.

(Yes, admittedly, almost all of my own sources have military backgrounds too. Importantly, however, unlike the highly-vocal UFO debunkers at CSICOP, most of them have divulged their UFO-related secrets only reluctantly, when pressed by myself or other researchers to do so. Therefore, as a rule, they have very cautiously presented their insiders’ perspective on national security-related UFO activity. This is, of course, entirely dissimilar in approach to the relentless, high-profile, anti-UFO public relations campaign undertaken by CSICOP’s debunkers over the years. I might also add that my own ex-military sources present their accounts in a simple, straightforward manner—and rarely insist that anyone believe them—whereas, in my view, the ongoing UFO-debunking pronouncements by the CSI-COPs are routinely jam-packed with classic propaganda devices, obviously designed to influence public opinion.)

In any event, the question being asked here is whether or not CSICOP/CSI has had within its ranks a few persons who have a hidden agenda on UFOs, which has nothing to do with genuine scientific skepticism. While I don’t know the answer to this question, given the extreme, unscientific anti-UFO track-record of the organization, I think it needs to be asked. Regardless, whatever these debunkers’ affiliations and motives may be, the reader doesn’t need what they have to offer unless, of course, you actually enjoy being misled by pseudoscientific propaganda, government-inspired or not.

It goes without saying that the statements above do not apply to the CSICOP/CSI membership in general. It’s only natural and to be expected that an organization which bills itself as “skeptical” in orientation will attract persons with a similar philosophical outlook. CSICOP/CSI counts among its membership many world-renowned scientists and other respected intellectuals. There is no question that a great many of these persons share a sincerely incredulous outlook on various subjects classified as “paranormal”, including UFOs.

Therefore, the fact that many of CSICOP’s members have rejected the validity of the UFO phenomenon—a subject about which they know little or nothing, and are not qualified to discuss authoritatively—certainly does not mean that they are secretly working for the CIA. Bias and presumption, rather than ulterior motives, account for these self-appointed UFO experts’ flawed perspective on the phenomenon. Consequently, if they have been misled by CSICOP’s top UFO debunkers, they have no one to blame but themselves.

I’ll conclude this chapter by simply saying that if one is sincerely seeking an objective, unbiased scientific assessment of the UFO phenomenon, one should bypass the sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious misinformation foisted on us all by Klass, Oberg, Frazier, and other debunkers affiliated with CSICOP/CSI. Instead, one would do well to read anything ever written on the subject by Dr. James McDonald or Dr. J. Allen Hynek—at least, anything written by Hynek during his post-Project Blue Book period, when his scientific investigation of UFOs was not hampered by the official restrictions under which he labored while affiliated with the U.S. Air Force.

Perhaps I am being overly optimistic but, who knows, once acquainted with some legitimate data on the UFO phenomenon—including that gathered decades ago by McDonald and Hynek—a few of the daring scientific skeptics reading this book [UFOs and Nukes] might actually begin practicing their profession, when addressing the subject of UFOs, instead of just offering lip service to that practice.

--Robert Hastings
ufohastings.com
hastings444@att.net

 

[Laura]

From: _http://raelianews.org/news.php?item.322.6

Reply To Robert Hastings Veteran UFO Researcher
We recently sent out a press release and commented on the interview on a huge US talk show in which a 35 year veteran UFO researcher appeared with 3 retired USAF personnel. The topic revolved around the story of UFOs disabling US nuclear missles.

The researcher, Robert Hastings was kind enough to let us know that we had some factual error. (Thank you, Robert) Here is his email to us and our reply.

I appeared on Larry King Live on July 18, 2008. I am the researcher referenced in your piece, although I was misidentified as a fourth military man, which I am not. However, I have spent 35 years investigating nukes-related UFO activity and have interviewed nearly 100 former or retired U.S. Air Force personnel.

Larry King's producers allowed me to hand-pick the three former USAF officers who appeared with me, all of whom described their involvement in nukes-related UFO incidents.

Your article contains factual errors. Actually, there have been a number of incidents during which UFOs have responded with lethal force when pursued by military jet fighters. For you to say otherwise is simply untrue. In my view, those incidents involved actions related to self-defense, however, pilots' lives were indeed lost. I offer two statments by those in-the-know:

“We have lost many men and planes trying to intercept them.” —General Benjamin W. Chidlaw, USAF, Commander in Chief, Continental Air Defense Command 1954-55

“What bothers me is what's happening to our aircraft.” —Anonymous Air Force officer, 1955

If you wish to perpetuate your religious beliefs about UFOs on the Internet, that's fine with me. However, when you mention me and my ex-military sources (although not by name) as if my research, or my sources' statements somehow confirm your views about aliens and their actions toward nuclear weapons, then I feel the need to respond to your uninformed opinions.

For a factual recounting of the nukes-related UFO activity, you may wish to visit my website, ufohastings.com

I intend to post this message on a number of websites. If you are an honest group, capable of admitting your mistakes, you will post it on yours. Sorry if all of this conflicts with your own dogma.

Sincerely,

Robert Hastings

Dear Robert,

Thank you very much for the clarification. Our apologies for labeling you Ex Military when you are actually a researcher. We will indeed publish this correction as well as your other correction below on our site immediately.

Respectfully, as you point out yourself, "In my view, those incidents involved actions related to self-defense", (the UFOs') so this fact changes nothing regarding the "intent" of said visitors. Nonviolent intention does not mean they would not have the right to defend themselves if fired upon. To my knowledge, no UFOs have come here attacking us. With their superior technology, they could easily have "taken over" long ago - or now - if that were indeed their intent. The fact that they have not is itself proof that they have peaceful intentions.

I don't have any reason to suspect it, but I suppose it's even possible that in the case of UFOs firing upon pilots, military officials could be doing what they have done many times in the past by offering little pieces of truth mixed with larger amounts of disinformation. Maybe this is what led you to ascertain they fired back in self defense.

Like you, we are not convinced governments and militaries always tell the truth. As you say, truth is always more important than any dogma. But the military - and even some researchers - often have their own sets of dogma, too. I personally researched UFOs and history (not the history written by the winners of the wars) for many years myself before joining the Raelian Movement. The disinformation and misinformation on UFOs is so thick that it's all but impossible to know "the truth" through the sources you're forced to deal with. There's much more blacked out from those FOIA docs than there is remaining.

What Rael said in his books, however, made perfect sense to tens of thousands of people - that we're being visited more and more in order to get humanity used to their presence. In fact, in his book published in 1974, Rael reported that the Elohim told him that Earth's military craft had indeed already fired upon their ships (again, pre 1973) and asked him to tell the world who they are so that they can eventually come to meet and interact with us. Obviously shooting at them would seriously decrease the odds of this. This is why the Raelian Movement does what we do. We are here to inform military and non-military alike precisely who these beings are.

We are so happy that you and others are helping this truth to be known. Doing this for 35 years as you have, you know that it's been a long, tricky journey and we really, sincerely thank you for what you're doing. The public has the right to know. The public even has the need to know! This information you and others are working so hard for will change the world paradigm - something which is long awaited and so very necessary for humanity's survival.

We really do appreciate your taking the time to write. We know what it's like to be misquoted or reported upon in an inaccurate way, so your writing means a lot to us.

Fraternally
ricky roehr


Posted on Tue 12 Aug 2008

 

[Laura]

From: _http://www.theufochronicles.com/2008/08/ufos-nukes-robert-hastings-sets-record.html

Editors Note: Recently an article, penned by a staff-writer appeared in the Albuquerque Journal, entitled, Book Links UFOs to Nukes; as is often the case the reporter was ignorant to the subject matter at hand and apparently made no attempt to do any homework.

The piece was filled with erroneous statements, innuendo and the writer’s predisposition was transparent. Although this is commonplace for mainstream media, in this instance I view it as “aftereffects” of Robert Hastings efforts in regards to disseminating information regarding the activity pertaining to UFO activity at US military installations—specifically—nuclear bases! In short he continues to make waves!

Unfortunately, as it was by his recent appearance on The Larry King Show, with guest skeptic, “Bill Nye,” Mr. Hastings has to waste time attempting to educate the unwitting, as is the case here. For clarity’s sake regarding Mr. Hastings’ rejoinder the a fore mentioned article is published in toto—FW

Book Links UFOs to Nukes

By John Fleck
The Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
8-25-08


Robert Hastings is nothing if not persistent in his pursuit of a connection between UFOs and the world's nuclear weapons programs.

For more than three decades, the Albuquerque resident has collected evidence and spoken around the country. He self-published a book of his findings this year, "UFO and Nukes." Last month he appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live."

The core of his argument is that visitors from space are monitoring our nuclear weapons operations, likely trying to warn us about their dangers, and that the government is covering it up.

"I believe the American public has a right to know the facts," Hastings said in an interview.

The problem, according to independent experts, is that Hastings
is wrong.

"It's preposterous," said Kingston George, a retired physicist and engineer who worked on weapons systems in the 1960s and is an eyewitness to one of Hastings' favorite cases.

The events Hastings describes have "plausible, prosaic explanations," said noted space historian James Oberg.

Oberg, who has studied much of the same space and nuclear history as Hastings, says the umbrella of secrecy surrounding common nuclear weapons system malfunctions in the past creates much of the uncertainty that leads to UFO claims today.

People responsible for secrecy surrounding nuclear weapon system malfunctions were happy to have them misinterpreted as UFO incidents because it made keeping the real secret easier, Oberg said.

The Big Sur Incident

Hastings says his UFO curiosity began as a teenager, when his father worked at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Hastings worked three nights a week in a radar tower, and one night he watched as a radar operator tracked five unknown objects. "That sparked my interest," he said.

To Hastings, an event off the coast of California in September 1964 is one of the most important events of the nuclear age. He believes an alien spaceship destroyed a dummy nuclear warhead during a U.S. missile test. The story has dark undertones of Central Intelligence Agency operatives and disappearing film.

It is, Hastings wrote last year in an article in the International UFO Reporter, "an unparalleled example of UFO interest in — and interference with — our nuclear missile systems."

George, now retired and living in Santa Maria, Calif., has heard this before. In 1964, he headed up the team responsible for filming the missile test.

Fifteen years ago, George first tried to explain what he says really happened — a missile malfunction, misunderstood and amplified in the retelling until it has taken a place in UFO lore.

Unbowed, Hastings was on "Larry King Live" last month, talking about how the missile test fits what, in an interview, he called "a systematic pattern of activity at nuclear sites."

The Big Sur Incident, Hastings' telegenic case, happened when an Air Force team led by George set up a telescope at Big Sur on the California coast to film missile tests from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

According to an account by Air Force photographic team member Bob Jacobs, the film showed an alien spacecraft darting around the missile as it flew, ultimately sending it tumbling into the sea short of its target.

In 1993, George wrote an article for Skeptical Inquirer, which describes itself as "the magazine for science and reason," offering a more prosaic explanation.

George was in charge of the photographic team and held a higher security clearance than Jacobs. According to George's account, the film actually showed a malfunction that would have left the missile vulnerable to Soviet countermeasures. When the problem was discovered, the film and information about the event was immediately classified "top secret," according to George.

That explains the extreme secrecy imposed on the film, according to George. Without the proper security clearance, according to George, Jacobs would never have been given the real reason.

A tough sell

Hastings' largest area of research involves UFO incidents at U.S. nuclear missile bases. He claims repeated incidents in which UFOs were reported at bases at the same time missile systems malfunctioned.

Oberg, an expert on the history of U.S. and Soviet missile technology, calls Hastings' missile malfunction cases "intriguing," but not for the same reason as Hastings.

A more likely explanation for the malfunctions, Oberg said, is the "persnickety" launch control systems of the day.

At the time, unusual sights in the sky were not uncommon, and in the distance of history, the two linked, Oberg argues.

"They connect the two in the time-honored logic that people have," Oberg said.

Hastings acknowledges he has no documentary evidence linking the alleged UFOs and the missile malfunctions for any of the cases described in his 602-page book.

He said he stopped filing federal Freedom of Information Act requests in 1984 after concluding that the government was withholding information about the events in which he was interested.

Instead, Hastings said, he has focused on finding former military personnel willing to describe their experiences.

He acknowledged that his thes is is sometimes a tough sell. "People resist new ideas," he said.

Hasting's Response

What an inaccurate, misleading article! I guess I will have to go on a few radio and TV shows to straighten things out. I am scheduled for two major national interviews in the near future and will definitely mention your inept and biased reporting. I will now begin calling the local Albuquerque stations too.

You quote Kingston George, who made lots of factual errors in his Skeptical Inquirer article on the Big Sur incident—as documented in my IUR article, which you have, but obviously did not read carefully—but failed to note that Major Florenze Mansmann, Vandenberg AFB's photographic interpretation officer said that his own contemporary analysis of the film showed "a classic disc" shaped object with a dome circling the dummy warhead and shooting beams of light at it. He also said that CIA agents confiscated the film.

Jacobs corroborates all of that. Can Kingston George produce another witness who viewed the film to support his take on things? Nope! Don't you "professional" media guys prefer a corroborating source for stories? Jacobs has his! Where's George's?

You also failed to mention that Skeptical Inquirer's editor, Kendrick Frazier, was a PR guy working for the U.S. government's nuclear weapons program, at Sandia Labs, at the time he gladly published George's attempted debunking of the Big Sur case. Frazier consistently failed to mention that fact in his skeptical magazine's masthead—for the entire 20-plus years he worked at Sandia—and in his own online biography, both facts I mentioned to you. In my view, he seemed to be shy about acknowledging having a PR job with the U.S. nukes program the whole time he was feverishly debunking UFOs and the government's cover-up of them. I wonder why?

On another topic, you said that I had no documentation for any of the cases I mentioned in my book. Do you recall the four pages of USAF/NORAD logs, released via the FOIA, which describe in detail UFOs hovering over Minuteman missile sites at Malmstrom AFB in November 1975? As you know, the jets sent up to chase away the UFOs were unable to intercept them. I devote an entire chapter in my book to those cases. I even gave you a hard copy of those logs. And yet, rather than acknowledging the Air Force's and NORAD's own declassified information—by devoting a few words to the logs—you chose to quote debunker James Oberg, who has never investigated those cases. Or did he tell you that he had?

I will simply end my email with a relevant excerpt from my book:

Americans cannot rely on our media institutions to routinely cover UFO sightings, or with the same degree of objectivity [found in the foreign press]. I earlier mentioned the book, The Missing Times, journalist Terry Hansen’s excellent exposé on the negatively-biased and uninformed coverage on UFOs typically offered up by the elite American media. Hansen’s book should be required reading for any professional reporter, especially those working for the high-profile organizations based in New York and Washington. Will that ever happen? Probably not. Regardless, if the pundits ever decide to become serious about covering, and perhaps actually investigating, the topic of UFOs, rather than knowingly or unwittingly serving as mouthpieces for the Pentagon and the CIA (which appears to be their current role) they can begin by interviewing the ex-military personnel who were directly involved in one nuclear weapons-related UFO incident or another.


To that end, I will happily provide my sources’ contact information to any reporter or assignment editor who asks for it. But I won’t hold my breath while waiting for those inquiries. Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect that most of the alleged reporters-of-record will instead continue to dismiss the accounts by military UFO sighting witnesses as being either fanciful or fraudulent. If they do, those journalists will betray the public they supposedly serve, and history’s verdict on their complacency—or, in some cases, complicity—is bound to be harsh.

 

[Laura]

From: _http://media.www.westerncourier.com/media/storage/paper650/news/2004/04/30/News/Real-Life.XFiles.Discussed-676236.shtml

Real life X-files discussed
Robert Hastings tells inside stories of UFOs and federal government cover-ups
Andrew Walters
Issue date: 4/30/04 Section: News

Some people believe beings from other planets exist and frequently visit earth. Some of these people are dismissed as unstable‚ con artists or delusional.

Then there is Robert Hastings‚ professional Unidentified Flying Object researcher‚ lecturer and lab analyst.

Hastings spoke in the Western Illinois University Union Wednesday night‚ presenting his case for the existence of UFOs and subsequent government cover-ups.

Hastings said he has been an avid believer in the existence of aliens and UFOs on earth since he was 16 years old‚ when he said he witnessed one from a Montana air force base where his father was stationed.

"In March 1967‚ I was at an air force base in Montana in the control tower when five objects flew by‚" Hastings said. "This has occurred in literally hundreds of documented occasions."

Hastings described the objects he and military personnel have witnessed. He said the objects glowed‚ hovered and performed high-speed maneuvers.

However farfetched his assertions may seem to some‚ Hastings provided credible references from government documents‚ which have been declassified because of the Freedom of Information Act.

According to Hastings‚ hundreds of memos and other documents can be obtained from the federal government by anyone who wishes to see them. Hastings provided a few of those documents‚ presenting a slide show and reading excerpts from them. Each document described military and CIA investigations of UFO sightings.

"The documents indicate beyond a shadow of a doubt that unidentified flying objects exist. This is not your average bunch of UFO kooks‚" Hastings said.

During the slide show presentation‚ Hastings told of the history of UFO sightings dating back to 1947.

The audio narrative mostly discussed occurrences around nuclear facilities and the government investigations that remained shrouded in secrecy for decades. The show also told the account of Betty and Barney Hill‚ who were allegedly abducted by aliens in 1961 in Vermont.

"This is‚ without a question‚ the most controversial of an already controversial subject‚" Hastings said about the abduction story.

According to the filmstrip‚ the Hills were driving along an empty road at night when suddenly they realized they had blacked out and lost over two hours of time. Furthermore‚ they had traveled a long distance down the road without remembering anything.

The couple sought help from a hypnotist‚ who was able to make them recall what flying saucer who had performed medical examinations on them.

"Obviously these things are real and they do exist. And the government kept us in the dark about it‚" Hastings said after the filmstrip.

Hastings said anyone who researches the evidence must come to the logical conclusion that aliens have visited earth and the U.S. government has covered it up. However‚ he said the government is perfectly reasonable to do so.

"I think the secrecy around UFOs was entirely appropriate. This is not science fiction or Hollywood or the funny papers. This is real‚" Hastings said.

Hastings further presented his case by reading accounts from retired air force personnel who attest to seeing flying objects in the sky that radar detected but no one could identify. Hastings said each witness was convinced they saw something not of this world.

"I am of the opinion that it is just a matter of time before all the truth comes out. We are in for a very interesting future‚" Hastings said.

 

[Laura]

From: _http://media.www.centralfloridafuture.com/media/storage/paper174/news/2006/09/29/News/Ufo-Enthusiast.Comes.To.Ucf-2315869.shtml

UFO enthusiast comes to UCF
Woody Wommack
Issue date: 9/29/06 Section: News


Robert Hastings came to UCF on Monday night to inform students of what he called the reality of UFOs in America. Hastings was brought to school by the Campus Activities Board Speakers Committee and its director, Kevin Chen.

"It was exciting to have him here, and we had a pretty good turn-out" Chen said.

Hastings began his speech by telling students he was directly involved in the sighting of UFOs in March 1967. Hastings, who described himself as an "Air Force brat," spent his teenage years living on the Malmstrum Air Force Base in Montana. He claimed to be present in an air traffic control tower when "five unidentified aerial targets" were spotted by the controllers. This began his interest in UFOs and other space crafts and he has been researching ever since.

After introducing himself to the audience and recalling his initial UFO experience, Hastings began a slideshow that he produced and narrated.

The timeline ran from 1948 through 1985, and contained many de-classified government documents from agencies such as the CIA and FBI.

A common theme throughout his entire presentation was the threat of UFOs near areas where nuclear weapons were being stored.

He presented the case of Betty and Barney Hill, which, according to Hastings, took place in 1961.

"The couple was driving near their home in New Hampshire when they suddenly saw bright lights and heard beeping," Hastings said. "The next thing the couple knew they woke up two hours later and eight miles down the road.

"While undergoing time-regression hypnosis slowly, and with mounting fear, each of them relived a frightening encounter with alien beings that took them from their car and led them aboard the now landed UFO.

"They were then separated and given lengthy medical examinations. Afterward, one of the aliens approached Betty and began to communicate with her in broken English.

"She was told that neither she nor her husband would remember the encounter" said Hastings, who claimed that radar reports from a local Air Force base in fact tracked a UFO at the same time and area where the Hills alleged encounter took place.

"I'm sure this is the first time most of you have heard this story" said Hastings. "It's a classic example of the secretive nature of our government agencies."

But Hastings stopped short of blaming the government.

"I'm not here to bad mouth the government agencies," Hastings said. "But I do think the American public deserves to know, especially if nuclear weapons are involved."

Most of the research Hastings presented was, at his own admission, circumstantial.

However, during his presentation he said that "only one percent of the information that government has on UFOs has been released, and I think if we ever get to see it we'll be able to make a more informed decision."

After the slide show ended, Hastings said that he wasn't out to change anyone's mind.

"I'm just showing you the facts I've obtained through my research and the research of others." Hastings said.

During a question-and-answer session after his presentation, many UCF students asked about the famous Roswell incident, but Hastings was hesitant to comment because of "lack of de-classified documents."

Even after the question-and-answer session ended some students stayed to talk one-on-one with Hastings.

Freshman computer engineering major John Sullivan said the presentation was "very interesting."

"He was proposing his own hypothesis and let you draw your own conclusions."

Another audience member, Mike Plasencia, a freshman psychology major also enjoyed the presentation.

"I think the information he presented was all factual," Plasencia said. "I also think the universe is too big for us to be here alone."

Future speakers and other events can be found at www.cab.ucf.edu.

 

[Laura]

From: _http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0807/18/lkl.01.html

CNN LARRY KING LIVE

Debate Over Existence of UFOs

Aired July 18, 2008 - 21:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, have UFOs shut down our government's defense systems?
There is evidence that something caused missiles to malfunction during test launches. Former Air Force officers tell their incredible story about the film that was confiscated by the CIA and what was on it and why don't officials want us to see it.

Find out right now on LARRY KING LIVE.

Good evening.

We begin with allegations that UFOs have interfered with missiles at U.S. Air Force bases and aliens are monitoring nuclear warheads and bombs.

Our first guests claim UFOs have activated missile systems at five Air Force Bases in five different states. They also claim a cover-up, that the United States government is keeping the information secret.

Former Air Force officers and an investigator are here with their stories.

Here in Los Angeles is Robert Hastings. He's author of "UFOs and Nukes." I have the book right here. The book is available at ufohastings.com. He has been investigating sightings at weapon sites for years.

Bob Salas is a former captain U.S. Air Force base -- of the United States Air Force. He was at Malstrom Air Force Base in 1967, where there were claims that a UFO caused missiles to malfunction. He's co-author of "Faded Giant."

Bob Jamison is with us, a former U.S. Air Force officer. He was at Malstrom, as well, in 1967 and he says his superiors told him UFOs caused the malfunctions.

And in Peoria, Illinois is Dr. Bob Jacobs, former lieutenant, U.S. Air Force, former U.S. Air Force photographic instrumentation officer. A UFO showed up on film that he shot in 1954 at Vandenberg Air Force Base and that was later confiscated by CIA agents.

All of our guests are named Bob, so I'm going to call them by their last names.

We'll start with Robert Hastings. How did you get -- what's your explanation for UFOs at nuclear weapon sites?

ROBERT HASTINGS, AUTHOR, "UFOS AND NUKES," RESEARCHES SIGHTINGS AT NUCLEAR WEAPONS SITES: I can simply say, after 35 years of research, that these incidents have taken place. There are hundreds of declassified documents which indicate that UFOs have demonstrated a distinct and ongoing interest in our nuclear weapons sites. I've also interviewed nearly a hundred gentlemen who were involved in these incidents at various Air Force bases. This is very widespread. What you're seeing here this evening is the tip of the iceberg.

KING: How do they cause a malfunction?

What do they do to cause something to not work?

HASTINGS: I think that's probably still an unknown. I know that Boeing engineers attempted to duplicate some of the malfunctions. They did succeed in doing that, but they still can't call -- determine what initially caused them. Bob Salas can address that.

KING: Bob, what happened at Malstrom in 1967?

BOB SALAS, FORMER USAF OFFICER, WORKED AT BASE WHERE MISSILES MALFUNCTIONED: In 1967, I was on duty as a missile launch officers. I got calls from my guards upstairs. First, I get one call saying that they're seeing strange lights flying in the sky. And I didn't pay too much attention to that. About five minutes later, the main security guard -- the flight security controller calls down and says he's looking at a glowing red object, very large, hovering over the front gate. And he wants to know what to do.

I tell him to secure the facility. We hang up. I go to tell my commander. So within seconds of that call, my missiles start shutting down. I recall losing all 10 of them.

KING: You didn't see the object?

SALAS: I didn't see the object because I was obliged to stay underground in the capsule.

KING: By shutting down we mean what?

SALAS: By shutting down what I mean is they were not launchable. They were in no go condition, disabled.

KING: How long to restart them?

SALAS: How long to restart?

Well, I'm sure it took over a day and maybe (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Now, Bob Jamison you were there too, right?

BOB JAMISON, FORMER USAF OFFICER, SUPERIORS TOLD HIM UFOS CAUSE MISSILE MALFUNCTIONS: Yes, sir. KING: And you were in the Air Force?

JAMISON: Yes, I was in the Air Force. I was...

KING: And where were you when this was happening?

JAMISON: Yes, I was a tightening -- I was a tightening officer, a missile targeting officer. I was at home relaxing and I got from job control to come in. A missile had gone down. My job as a target officer was to bring them back up. And so I went in to...

KING: But you didn't see the incident, you just went to the missile?

JAMISON: No, I went to the incident. I went to the site.

KING: Where is Malstrom?

JAMISON: It's Great Falls, Montana, just outside of Great Falls, Montana.

KING: What did you make of the story?

JAMISON: Well, I know that it's The Skeptic Society. I went into job control after I got to the hangar. I was called in. I went to the hangar. I went to the job control. And I noticed they have a map of the whole complex, the green lights where the missiles are good. But there's one small area with 10 red lights. It means those missiles were out.

KING: Is it possible they just malfunctioned?

JAMISON: That doesn't happen. Very rarely does a missile malfunction. And I don't think any -- much more rare would be two at the same time. But never 10.

KING: Now, Bob Jacobs, where were you?

What were you filming and where were you?

DR. BOB JACOBS, USAF (RET.), FORMER USAF PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTATION OFFICER, FILMED UFOS, FILM LATER CONFISCATED BY TWO CIA AGENTS: I was in charge of optical instrumentation at Vandenberg Air Force Base in from 1963 to '66. Our job was to photograph...

KING: That's California?

JACOBS: That's California. That's right there on the coast. And our job was to photograph, with high speed instrumentation, every missile launch from Vandenberg going down the test range. They wanted to find out if we could figure out a place to put a telescope where we could get a side view of the missile, so that we could see all three stages of powered flight.

So I went up to Big Sur, California, up on an air -- on the U.S. Forest Service road on Anderson Peak and installed a telescopic site up there. And the Air Force flew in a huge catarctic telescope from the Cape. It was built by Dr. Walter Manning at the Boston University.

They put this telescope up there. And with that thing, which had a focal length of 2,500 inches, we photographed an Atlas missile raising up out of the fog cover and flying downrange. We got all three stages of powered flight. And as the dummy warhead and the package flew on down the range, we were all celebrating the fact that we had seen the thing and accomplished the mission.

When I got back to the base with the film, the next day I was called into the office of Major Florenze J. Mansmann. And there were three people in gray suits standing in there. There was a .16 millimeter camera and a screen set up.

Major Mansmann said lieutenant, sit down and watch this. And he turned down the lights, turned on the camera -- on the projector and the film came on. And I recognized it as the film that we had shot at Big Sur the previous day.

Toward the end of the flight, I was looking at Major Mansmann saying pretty good stuff, huh sir?

And suddenly he said just watch this.

And as I watched, the warhead -- the dummy warhead, the chaff that was put out in front of it as the decoy to deflect the Russian anti-missile missile tracking radar -- everything was flying along and suddenly, in the same direction this stuff was flying, at about 8,000 miles an hour, an object came into the frame, shot a beam of light at the warhead, flew up to the top, shot another beam of light at the warhead, flew around the direction it was flying, shot another beam of light at the warhead, flew down to shoot another beam of light at the warhead and then flew out the same way it came in.

KING: Well, I don't understand.

JACOBS: And that's (INAUDIBLE)...

KING: Why didn't you see this when you were shooting it?

JACOBS: Well, it was 600 or 800 miles away from us.

KING: Oh, I got you.

JACOBS: All of this...

KING: And they confiscated...

JACOBS: We only could see this...

KING: They confiscated...

JACOBS: Well, first of all, Major Mansmann said to me, what was that?

Were you guys screwing around up there? I said, no, sir. And he said then tell me what that was. And I said we got a UFO. And he said, lieutenant, you are never to speak of this again. As far as you're concerned, this didn't happen.

KING: Hold on, guys.

JACOBS: And for...

KING: We've got to take a break. OK. That's weird.

Do you think there's an actual defense plan for aliens?

It sounds crazy. We'll ask about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not alone in witnessing something extraordinary. That's the bottom line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Powerful beaming spotlights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Triangular in shape, sitting on three legs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No type of aircraft that I've ever seen before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rapidly maneuvered and quickly disappeared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Accelerating to very high speeds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were just trying our cars...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what we were seeing, it don't resemble anything known to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Bob Jamison, we'll make this clear, you were asked to say nothing?

JAMISON: I was not asked to say nothing. In fact, no one admonished me and I did not sign an oath saying that I can't say anything.

KING: So, what -- there was no cover-up as far as you were concerned?

JAMISON: That's correct.

KING: You just...

JAMISON: I can tell. I can speak about it.

KING: You can tell what you saw. Do you think there's a plan for invasion by aliens?

JAMISON: I wouldn't presume to know that. I simply know that the U.S. government does not obviously appreciate people, such as myself and these gentlemen, speaking out about this. What we're describing, on an ongoing basis, decade after decade, at multiple Air Force bases, is just disruption of our nuclear missiles.

KING: We have an e-mail from Kyle in Plainville, Massachusetts: "Why would UFOs only disable U.S. defense systems and not another country? Is there a lesson to be learned in all of this?"

Or do you think maybe -- Bob Salas -- they have disabled other countries?

SALAS: They have. I know that there have been events in the Soviet Union where they have interfered there. They've been seen in just any country you could name. You know, I do disable communications that's (INAUDIBLE).

KING: We have an e-mail from Eric in Atlanta, Georgia: "What can be done, if anything, to force the U.S. government and/or military to declassify and release all it knows about UFOs?"

Dr. Jacobs, when do you think that would happen?

Do you think that would happen?

JACOBS: It would take a revolution in public opinion. The problem with this field is that it's surrounded by so many crackpots and weirdoes who make a joke about it, that those of us who take it seriously and think that something definitely is going on and it needs to be scientifically investigated, are laughed at. The technician here in the studio where I am, I said were talking about UFOs tonight and her face lit up and she got that kind of hmmm look, which is typical of what happens to us.

I think that we need to a real scientific committee to be put together to look into these things. I think Rob (INAUDIBLE) too.

KING: I agree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

KING: Bob Salas, do you agree?

SALAS: Yes. I would like to make a comment real quick. The Air Force has perpetrated a fraud, especially in our case. They claim in their statement about UFOs that nothing has -- no UFO incident has ever affected national security.

And we lost 20 missiles during the cold war. They also stonewalled the Condon Committee at that time. The Condon Committee had heard about our incident and were told to go away. They said they were told that no UFOs were involved.

And then the Air Force turns around and uses the Condon Committee as a reason not to further investigate UFOs.

KING: Robert Hastings, in doing all these shows, what confounds me is, if all of this is The Skeptic Society, what are they afraid of?

What's the government afraid of?

HASTINGS: Victor Marchetti is a former high level CIA official. He wrote the book "CIA and The Cult of Intelligence" in 1975, a best- seller. The CIA tried to prohibit that being printed.

He, Victor Marchetti, in 1979, wrote an article regarding what the CIA thought about UFOs. He alluded to rumors at the agency of crashed UFOs and the recovery of bodies of aliens. More to the point, Victor Marchetti said that, in his view, as an intelligence analyst, he thinks that the power structures, the elite, the status quo, people in every country on earth who are in on the secret, are really trying to maintain their own power and status and don't want to rock the boat.

KING: An e-mail from Christian, Brighton, Colorado: "When is the Air Force going to stop lying to the people and finally tell them the truth about alien visitation? The American people are paying their salaries and they are supposed to defend and respect the Constitution of the United States of America."

Bob Jamison, do you ever think we'll ever see it?

Do you think we'll ever see an Air Force official, the secretary of the Air Force come on and say here's the story?

JAMISON: Perhaps through more programs, such as this we can get the public tuned to the fact that there were -- are UFOs. They're not going to hurt you, I don't think. And they haven't hurt anybody that I know of. And I think that, perhaps, through more programs such as yours and such as these people are bringing out...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a government investigation immediately.

JAMISON: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An open investigation.

KING: There's never been one, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

SALAS: Not really, no. I mean in 1968 was the last Congressional hearing on UFOs -- 1968.

KING: Forty years.

SALAS: Forty years. We need another one. We need a strong one. Hopefully, the next administration will do that.

HASTINGS: There's been a lot of behind-the-scenes manipulation of Congress by the military lesson personnel. KING: Because of what -- fear of what?

HASTINGS: Well, again, Larry, these gentlemen are talking about nuclear missiles being dropped offline. The Pentagon does not want the Russians or, previously, the Soviets to know that. It's going on in the Soviet Union, as Bob Salas has said. But I have interviewed persons who were involved with the Minutemen missile bases in the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s. And they say this is continuing to occur.

I've actually interviewed a gentleman a year ago who said that his missiles were activated by UFO. And I describe that in detail in my book. I asked him to come on this program and he declined, I think because he's uneasy about talking publicly.

KING: There are skeptics, not a surprise. Bill Nye, the science guy, is here when LARRY KING LIVE returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does not contain any pattern of purpose or of consistency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's not a weather balloon nor an aircraft nor a missile. It is something else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what they saw in '47, but I'm quite sure it probably was Project Mobile.

CWO JOHN HAU (RET.), U.S. NAVY: Nothing we had at the time, could fit the description, size and shape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Go to CNN.com/larryking right now and take our quick vote.

Is the United States government hiding knowledge of UFOs?

Let us know what you think.

Joining our panel is Bill Nye, the science guy. He's a scientist, engineer, best-selling author and Emmy winning television personality. He's, by the way, a member of The Skeptic Society and a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Now, Bill, assuming that these distinguished gentlemen are not lying, we have three former members of the Air Force and Robert Hastings who's looked into this for a long time, what's your thought?

BILL NYE, "THE SCIENCE GUY": Well, in the skeptical world, in science, we look at claims. We look at individual claims. So I noticed that in the intro to your show and stuff that you -- there are several UFO incidents all mixed in together.

But let's talk about the one in 1967, right? This is your problem at Malstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Malstrom.

NYE: So the nuclear missiles went down right?

So if you go look at the documents that these guys have offered, if I understand it, as evidence, you look at some of them -- and you don't have to look read it, but you see there's something blacked out, OK, redacted. That's a guy's home address. They don't want you to publish your home address.

Here's one with a whole bunch of people's office phone numbers and stuff. And it looks spooky and scary.

KING: But what's your point?

NYE: Well, it looks spooky and scary, but it turns out that that day, or the day before, the power had gone out in some of the chiller units, the air conditioning, OK?

And Boeing was called out -- Boeing makes the Minuteman missile -- because all these things went down and they wanted to know what had happened.

KING: So the man who called him and said he saw something outside, he didn't see something?

NYE: Well, let me just say, when you see something, a lot of people see something. And a lot of people see things that are really -- they can't identify. But that doesn't mean they were -- it's quite a leap...

KING: So you're saying it's a coincidence.

NYE: Yes.

KING: This guy thought he saw something and the missiles go out?

NYE: And then you talk to people who were there...

KING: All right. Bob Salas, how do you respond?

NYE: ...and it's very compelling. And these documents

KING: Hold up.

NYE: I just want to address this.

KING: OK. Let him respond.

NYE: When you respond, address that one of the officers suspected that somebody had been drinking, OK?

SALAS: I never heard that.

NYE: OK?

(CROSSTALK)

SALAS: I never heard that explained that anybody was drinking.

Let me say, first of all, the missile shutdowns had nothing to do with power failure. There is triple redundancy on power. We've got Montana Power. We've got a backup generator. We've got batteries, OK?

The power...

KING: You've never seen missiles go down due to a power failure?

SALAS: Not really, because of all that backup on power. So this had nothing to do with power. The second point. The flight security guard that reported this was about less than 100 feet away from this object. He was looking at it through his window. It was right outside the front gate, right above the gate. It was a glowing red object, pulsing.

NYE: OK.

Did you see it?

SALAS: No. I couldn't see it.

KING: No, he delegate 2006 election it.

SALAS: I couldn't see it. I couldn't leave the capsule. But within seconds after that report, the missiles shut down.

Now, was that a coincidence?

NYE: Well, it's hearsay, as we say in the courtroom.

SALAS: It's not hearsay.

NYE: Well, you're saying that this guy told you.

SALAS: It was testimony.

KING: Well, you're not saying -- I'm not asking you -- you don't think he's lying?

NYE: No.

KING: All right.

So the guy did tell him?

NYE: He did tell him and he saw something. And, coincidentally, the missile shut down.

KING: All right. OK. The guy saw something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coincidentally is called... (CROSSTALK)

KING: Wasn't that a weird coincidence?

NYE: Yes. I mean I've -- many times I've flipped a light switch and you hear a siren.

SALAS: What if the same thing happened a week earlier, only this time 10 missiles go down, a lot of security guards see the UFOs right above the what are five other missile bases...

NYE: OK. So why don't we...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...on repeated occasions.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a coincidence, too?

I mean you can buy the two -- are those two coincidences?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...the 1950s, '60s, '70s and '80s.

KING: One at a time. One at there are time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, but here's the thing. It's not...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's over a hundred people, they'll...

NYE: Well, in science it's not evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish -- I wish Edgar Mitchell were here. But in any case...

KING: It may not be evidence, let's say, but it is certainly a source of...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, a hundred people are telling the same story at different Air Force bases over a four week period.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These guys were entrusted...

KING: One at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...with weapons of destruction by the U.S. government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there's a hundred now who are coming forward and saying UFOs shut down their nuclear weapons.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we have a mass psychosis...

KING: All right. In the interests of time...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...among our nuclear missile forces?

KING: Hold it. In the interests of time, Dr. Jacobs, he takes pictures, he comers back, they call him in. They show him the pictures of this strange thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw it. I'm an eyewitness.

KING: He saw it. They confiscate.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: And they confiscate it?

NYE: Yes.

KING: Why?

Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not talking about people who reported...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't be surprised...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead.

KING: Yes, go ahead.

JACOBS: Do you mind if I speak, Mr. Comedian?

KING: Go ahead.

JACOBS: I was there. I was there. I saw the film with my own eyes.

I'm not lying.

Why would I?

I'm a university professor with a Ph.D. and a lot of years of good respectful research. So the (INAUDIBLE) officer may not have seen the UFO, but they saw the results of it. I saw the damn thing on film with my own eyes, so don't call me a liar and you weren't there, I was.

NYE: I didn't -- with all due respect, I'm not calling you a liar. It's just quite a step to say there was a film with remarkable images on it that the CIA confiscated, which I saw and which...

JACOBS: It's quite a step they did.

NYE: Yes. Which is quite a step from there to say it was definitely a spacecraft from another civilization. That's the leap that the skeptical community is reluctant to take.

JACOBS: Listen, I didn't -- hey, pal, listen to me. I didn't say it was a space ship from another civilization. I said it was something in the air that we couldn't identify. Therefore, it was an unidentified flying object. It was shaped like two saucers put together with a golf ball on top. And it fired a beam that we assumed was a plasma beam at a dummy warhead and knocked it out of space. Tell me what happened. Tell me who did that. Tell me in 1964 who had that technology, pal. Not us and not the Russians and nobody I know of.

So come on Mr. Skeptic, what about it?

NYE: So what's your conclusion?

So what's your conclusion?

JACOBS: What's your conclusion?

NYE: What are you saying?

Well, my conclusion is that something happened that you don't know what it was. And I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with another aspect of military testing in the sky that night. And it's a much more reasonable explanation...

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBS: We had nothing -- there was nothing in our inventory that could do possibly do that.

NYE: So let's do -- let's do this other little thought experiment, everybody. OK, let's say this has been going on since 1967, routinely, right?

There's an old joke in broadcasting...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to do this with baking soda and vinegar, Bill?

KING: Hold on. We're running out of time.

(LAUGHTER)

NYE: It's an old joke in broadcasting...

KING: What is it?

NYE: Well, it's like trying to photograph a car wreck. At one time, considered an impossible thing to do. If you sent out a news crew, OK, let's go shoot a car wreck, that was a joke. Well, now, routinely on the nightly news we see car wrecks. We see car wrecks on the freeway, we see car wrecks behind us. KING: Why was it a joke that your...

NYE: Because there's -- because there didn't used to be a camera everywhere. There are millions and millions of cameras. There are billions of digital pictures taken every week.

KING: So you're saying he -- they -- you're not saying there are no UFOs, you're saying they haven't been proven?

NYE: I'm saying that it's quite a step to see something you don't know what it is in the sky to say that there are alien spacecraft...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you've got to understand Dr. Jacobs...

NYE: ...that are monitoring our nuclear weapons.

KING: He has seen this, Dr. Jacobs.

NYE: Well, I understand that.

KING: Now, so you're -- if you're questioning what he's seen...

NYE: No. Well, I'm questioning his -- the conclusion that the technology did not exist in 1964 to produce images on film that the CIA would want to confiscate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I may?

JACOBS: Well, in 1964 you were trying to figure out what...

NYE: That's quite a step.

JACOBS: In 1964, you were trying to figure out what girls were. I was in the service as a senior scientist (INAUDIBLE) capacity.

NYE: Sir, you can attack me...

JACOBS: So get off your skeptic high horse, pal.

NYE: But that doesn't -- well, it just doesn't...

JACOBS: You're attacking us.

NYE: It's quite a step...

JACOBS: You're the one who's making ad hominem attacks and saying that's quite a step.

You bet it's quite a step.

HASTINGS: If I may?

If I may?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, please.

KING: All right. One at a time, please. We've got two minutes left.

HASTINGS: The other person, the other former Air Force officer, retired Air Force officer involved in it was charged with photo analysis of this film. Florenze Mansmann, who's now deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Florenze J. Mansmann.

HASTINGS: I've spoken to his widow. I have correspondence -- private correspondence between Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Mansmann, actually. And 20 years later, they are marveling over what they saw. Mansmann's professional assessment at Vandenberg in 1964 was that this was an extraterrestrial craft.

NYE: OK. So he made that conclusion.

HASTINGS: That's correct.

NYE: OK. All right.

HASTINGS: And I can send you -- I will give CNN -- I'm trying to get the national media involved in this as much as possible. I will send anyone any correspondence for any newspaper, any radio station, TV station, any scientist, any member of your group, all of the original documentation...

KING: All right, we...

HASTINGS: ...where these gentlemen are discussing the subject 20 years later.

KING: All right, we're going to have -- we're going to do a lot more on this, because we do a lot on UFOs.

We thank you all for coming. And we thank Dr. Jacobs.

But when we come back, we're going to really get into it -- a double debate. We're going to have a physicist, a lecturer, a researcher and a documentary filmmaker go up against Bill Nye and Dr. Seth Shostek into a two versus two on this whole subject.

Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think it was possible it was from another world?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My Air Force training says I can't think that way, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know what I saw. And I get very upset. And I was wondering why they won't find out what it was?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until somebody actually sees it, they have no idea. No idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A story this big, there's no way it could be kept secret. What do you say to something like that, who says that?

COL. GORDON COOPER (RET), ASTRONAUT: Well, somebody's kept it pretty secret for quite a while, haven't they.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Four distinguished gentlemen will now debate that reasonably. They are here in Los Angeles, Stanton Friedman, a physicist, lecturer and a UFO researcher and author of "Flying Saucers and Science." James Fox is a documentary film maker and UFO researcher, the executive producer of "Out of The Blue," and finishing up a new film, the working title "Beyond The Blue." Bill Nye, our science guy, remains. And in Boston is Dr. Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute. That stands for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. He's the host of the weekly radio program, "Are We Alone."

All right, Stanton, it is Bill's contention that, yes, people have sighted things. Yes, there are reports. But we don't know there are unidentified flying objects from other planets.

STANTON FRIEDMAN, PHYSICIST: Well, you know, I admire Bill's courage. I can't imagine a well-trained scientist who's an expert at communicating science to the general masses of people, who has courage enough to go on a national, international television program, to talk about something which he hasn't researched, something which he knows nothing about and pretend he's being a scientist about it. Frankly, I'm sick and tired of the debunkers making their research be proclamations.

Bill showed a document with, you know, names redacted. How about this is a CIA document, it took me five years to get, about UFOs. Not just names redacted.

KING: Are you saying, Stanton, as a physicist, that there are unidentified flying objects that have come from other places?

FRIEDMAN: Yes. I'm going beyond that. That's why the book is flying saucers and UFOs.

KING: They would be unidentified.

FRIEDMAN: Yes, I'm saying some UFOs are intelligently controlled extraterrestrial spacecraft. We're dealing with a cosmic Watergate, meaning a cover-up by the government. And there are no good arguments against those two. And we're dealing with the biggest story of the millennium.

KING: Before I have Bill respond, let's have Dr. Shostak respond. Doctor, what do you know or not know?

SETH SHOSTAK, SR ASTRONOMER, SETI INSTITUTE: Stanton likes to say, those of us who are not doing the UFO research shouldn't opine about them. And I find that not such a convincing argument, because frankly, I don't do black hole research. I'm an astronomer. I don't do black hole research. But I can read a paper about black holes and decide whether it sounds credible or not. Is the guy who did it credible? Was the paper reviewed? Are other scientists convinced? Can I repeat the experiment?

There's no reason Bill Nye, nor I, can't offer a serious opinion on this subject. So I regret that he said that.

Secondly, you're not offering --

(CROSS TALK)

KING: Don't interrupt. Let's bring in James Fox. Do you know that -- do you know -- you're not a scientist, but a filmmaker -- do you know that objects have come from other places, not the Earth?

JAMES FOX, DOCUMENTARY FILM MAKER: Here's my theory.

KING: Theory.

FOX: Two possibilities, the observed phenomena -- By the way, I've got a little document here that was released from the Air Material Command, General Nathan Twaining (ph), admitting on the 23rd of September, 1947 that the phenomenon is real and not visionary or fictitious.

KING: What do you know?

FOX: Basically, there's an observed technology for at least 60 years that one can easily establish, the ability to hover without making sound, without disturbing the air and accelerate from the standpoint to out of sight in the blink of an eye. Either there's an agency within some government in the world that is in possession of that technology and has kept it under wraps for 60 years. I can definitively say that.

KING: The government could be ours.

FOX: And it's terrestrial explanation. There's a terrestrial explanation for that technology, or there isn't.

KING: Or the government could be ours, too.

FOX: Or the government could be ours, which would explain that they've kept this technology under wraps for 60 years or more.

KING: Could you unequivocally, Bill, say there are no objects coming from outer space? Can you say that?

NYE: Of course not. There are definitely objects coming from outer space. There's 100,000 tons of --

KING: I mean manned alien.

NYE: -- dust that lands of day. Put a sheet out every night. You will find dust.

KING: Aliens.

NYE: I'm very skeptical. As we say in science, the simplest explanation is generally the best one. So here's our problem, I think: people are confident that the United States government has covered things up.

KING: Right.

NYE: And indeed, if you read recent publications, stuff declassified last year, and I didn't read the book, but if you read something like "Legacy of Ashes" about the CIA, the CIA has covered up a lot of things. A couple times, they got their own forces shooting at themselves because one part of the organization didn't tell the other part of the organization.

KING: What's your point?

NYE: My point being that the U.S. government could have accidentally led people to believe that there was a lot more going on than there really was. And so this ability of the U.S. government to create these rumors, generally inadvertently, may I say, has led people to have confidence that when they can't explain something by traditional means, it must be some amazing, never-before experienced --

KING: Let me get a break in. We'll come right back. Where are these so-called space aliens coming from? What do they want from us? We'll ask after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: There's still time to participate in our quick vote; is the United States government hiding knowledge of UFOs? Head to CNN.com/LarryKing right now and weigh in. Yes, by the way, right now, is in the lead. Before we continue, let's take a look at a clip from James fox's new movie. It involves a Japanese airliner. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ahead on the radar, approximately five miles in front of your 6:00 position. Do you concur?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cannot identify the type. It's quite big.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The CIA said, to all the people there, this event never happened. Who are you going to believe? Your lying eyes or the government?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Why is the government covering up, Stanton?

FRIEDMAN: In my book, I have a whole chapter on six reasons for it. You want to figure out how they work. You worry about the other guy figuring out how they work before you do, because they make wonderful weapons delivery and defense systems. You don't want them to know you know they know kind of thing. If a big announcement were to be made, there would be -- what, church attendance would go up, mental hospital admissions would go up, the stock market would go down, but there would be a big push for earthling orientation. No government wants that.

And fourth, some of the religious extremists --

KING: Do you, Dr. Shostak, believe there would be a panic?

SHOSTAK: No, absolutely not, Larry. Polls have shown since the 1960s that something like 50 percent, 60 percent Americans believe we're being visited by saucer sailing aliens that occasionally abduct you for experiments that are inappropriate on a first date. And nobody's rioting in the streets about that. "New York Times" announced it tomorrow, I think people would say, I knew it all along.

KING: Our latest Associated Press poll shows 14 percent of Americans claim they've seen a UFO and 34 percent say they believe in UFOs. James, you had eyewitnesses you spoke to in Arizona, right, who told you they saw. They saw what?

FOX: There was a craft. It's a the boomerang shaped craft. It's up to a mile across. It's flew extremely slowly.

KING: A mile across.

FOX: A mile across. It flew extremely slowly. People had to fly directly over. We're not talking about an ambiguous light off in the distance. Directly over their house, so low they could have hit it with a rock.

KING: How many people told you they saw it?

FOX: There's been over 1,000 people who have come forward. I talked to at least 150 from all over the state of Arizona, including the governor of Arizona, who did launch an investigation with the Pentagon, local Air Force base, Luke Air Force Base.

KING: What happened in the investigation?

FOX: They shrugged their shoulders and said, we don't know what that thing was.

KING: How do you respond? They're not lying, Bill. What do you think?

NYE: My recollection was the Air Force said they had a flight of F-16's that dropped flares that night. It's a big V.

KING: These people are not --

FRIEDMAN: That was at 10:00, not 8:30.

FOX: The real thing happened at 8:30. It started in the north and headed all the way down.

NYE: One explanation is --

FRIEDMAN: People couldn't tell time.

NYE: One explanation is people -- something happened in the evening and we have confused the time. Another explanation is there's an alien spacecraft.

KING: OK. Are you open to that possibility?

NYE: Not in the case of the one in Phoenix. In this case -- I don't have the documents in front of me, in all fairness.

FRIEDMAN: You haven't studied the evidence is what it boils down to, Bill.

NYE: That's where I really disagree with you, Stan. I've studied the evidence pretty well.

FOX: When this craft took off -- and I talked to people across the state of Arizona. They said, had I blinked I would have missed it. It didn't make any sound. It didn't disturb the air. It didn't make a sonic boom. And it was at least a mile across, including the governor of Arizona saw this thing.

FRIEDMAN: And he's a pilot

FOX: And he's a pilot and former captain in the Air Force.

NYE: On CNN we had footage of that.

(CROSS TALK)

FOX: No footage of that. I'm about to uncover footage that --

KING: Let me get a break. Why do we presumes that aliens, if they are out there, are so much smarter than we? Interesting question. We'll try for an answer. Phone calls, too, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: I don't know what it is. We're back. OK, calm down. Stanton, a good point from an avid listener. We've lived through many administrations of this. We've lived through Johnson, Nixon, all right, a whole bunch. We've had Republicans, Democrats, scientists. All of them are covering up? Nobody, nobody -- no official has ever said, I want to look into this?

FRIEDMAN: As they say --

FOX: Jimmy Carter on camera -- I was the first person to get Jimmy Carter on camera saying that he tried to launch an investigation and he got nowhere. I got Gerald Ford in a phone interview, he did the same thing. KING: How could a president get nowhere?

FOX: He got nowhere. Bill Clinton tried to launch an investigation.

KING: The CIA is hiding all this from presidents?

FOX: We don't know it's the CIA. It's some sort of quasi- government, quasi-military --

NYE: Here's the thing, the CIA hides stuff from the president, but that doesn't mean they are extraterrestrial.

KING: Why, Stanton, on this topic would there be a giant cover- up?

FRIEDMAN: Because it affects everything we think about ourselves. As I said, if we make a declaration that indeed aliens are visiting, people are going to want to push for an earthling orientation. We have 300 million people --

FOX: What orientation?

FRIEDMAN: A new identity. Instead of as Americans, Chinese, Greeks, Peruvian --

KING: OK.

FRIEDMAN: Who speaks for the planet. We're going to hold an election, right? But the Chinese have 1.3 billion. India has one billion. We have 300 million. We're not going to give up that -- they have a common goal to stay in power. That's what government is all about, Larry. You know that.

FOX: Look at it on a smaller scale, like with Fife Symington. Fife Symington made a joke out of that sighting that happened in 1977. He had one of his aides dressed up in an alien suit. This massive craft flies over the state of Arizona. The governor said there was mounting pressure from his constituents to get to the bottom of it, growing hysteria. He holds a press conference. He has his aide dress up in an alien suit and males a joke out of the whole thing.

The reason why he did that -- he told us ten years later -- is because they didn't know what it was. People were freaking out.

KING: An e-mail from Anne in Duncan, Oklahoma: "UFO conspiracy theorists say the U.S. government is conspiring to keep extraterrestrial contacts a secret. Why wouldn't aliens themselves make their presence known to the world? If they can travel light years to get here, they don't need government permission for anything." Don't you think they would do that, Seth?

SHOSTAK: Of course they would. Look, you just have to look at the historical analogs, Larry; 1492, Columbus lands in America. Ten years later, Spain is sending 25 ships filled with colonists to the Americas. If you had asked the North American natives ten years after Columbus, do you think we're being invaded? It doesn't matter what their military wanted to do, what the chiefs wanted to do. They knew they were being invaded. It's been more than 60 years since Roswell. As far as I can tell, my flights still take off on time from the local airport. No aliens whatsoever.

KING: Why don't they come, James?

FOX: Here's the thing.

FRIEDMAN: I don't talk to the squirrels in my backyard, Larry.

FOX: I asked this exact question to Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, sixth man on the moon; I said why won't they just land? He said -- he really looked at me and said, well think about it, James. Don't you think if you went to a distant world, don't you think you would want to sit back and observe a little bit?

KING: Why do they observe Wyoming and not Washington?

(CROSS TALK)

FOX: Washington was buzzed in 1962. It was captured on radar, photographed, caught on photograph.

NYE: That's your claim. What do I do?

FOX: It's a fact.

NYE: What do I do as a civilian when the U.S. Air Force says, well, that was some flight testing we were doing and we covered it up. What do you do when they declassify the --

FOX: Are they hiding this technology for 60 years? Maybe they are. But if they're hiding this technology, they shouldn't be, because somebody's in possession of technology that could really be beneficial to all of humanity.

(CROSS TALK)

FOX: I don't know. Maybe they're not. Maybe it is alien visitation. I don't know. I can't prove that. But I can tell you --

KING: Do you think aliens have visited here?

FRIEDMAN: No question about it. The evidence is so powerful. And I wish that Seth, who when he attended my lecture admitted he hadn't read any of the --

KING: What do they want, the aliens, do you think?

FRIEDMAN: I got a whole long list of bottom line, they're here to quarantine us.

KING: Quarantine us?

FRIEDMAN: Hey, we're primitive society whose major activity is tribal warfare. I worked on fusion propulsion systems. Everybody in the neighborhood is going to know about fusion. That's what makes the stars work. Within a short time, we'll be able to take our brand of friendship, which everybody else calls hostility, out there. Remember, this is a planet that killed 50 million of our own kind in World War II.

NYE: You're saying the aliens are afraid that we will take over their technology?

FRIEDMAN: I didn't say that.

FOX: This is all speculation right now. Let's start talking about the facts.

NYE: That's where we disagree, is on the facts.

(CROSS TALK)

FOX: We have government documents basically stating that these things exists.

NYE: Have you been to Wright Patterson Air Force Base?

FOX: Of course I have.

NYE: You've been there, Larry, it's cool.

(CROSS TALK)

KING: They don't show you an alien, do they?

NYE: I had security clearance for a while.

FOX: What would you do if you saw one of these things?

NYE: First of all, I would take a picture of it, a good one.

FOX: Then what?

NYE: Then I would look at the picture carefully.

FOX: And then laugh at yourself because no one would believe you.

KING: Let me get a break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Is that a cow? We're back -- I'm trying to figure out, is that a cow?

NYE: Cows watching UFOs.

KING: Einstein's theory of relativity, you can't travel faster than light, right? FRIEDMAN: Yes, but as you get close to the speed of light, time slows down. You can go 39 light years in six months pilot time if you're at 99.99 percent speed of the light. We physicists make particles that go --

NYE: They become infinitely massive.

(CROSS TALK)

NYE: Here's what I'm saying, that's a much better explanation that we don't know enough about it. But -- but, Stan, you made a point before break that the U.S. Air Force will not let you see everything. I should hope not. I hope the U.S. Air Force has a few things up their sleeves.

FRIEDMAN: I had 14 years under security.

NYE: But that doesn't mean that the stuff that you can't see at, for example --

KING: Let me get a call in. New Orleans, hello.

CALLER: Hi, Larry, how are you doing?

KING: Hi.

CALLER: I would like to know how often are eye-witnesses given a polygraph to prove that they're telling the truth rather than making up a story just to be on TV?

KING: Are they, James?

FOX: It happens.

KING: Are they given polygraphs?

KING: It has happened. Benny Hill passed one on national television.

(CROSS TALK)

KING: Seth, you are a skeptic? You think we'll ever know the whole story, or will never know the whole story? Seth?

SHOSTAK: Sorry, I didn't hear -- the whole story -- the bottom line is, Larry, this: Stanton has some insight into alien sociology. He knows what they want. He's failed to convince the scientists of the world. When he does that, you'll have real investigation in this. It will move from the area of fantasy to real science. I'm waiting for that to happen.

FOX: Here's the problem. I just got back from a meeting with the French CNS, the French equivalent of NASA. France has -- I don't know if people know this, but France just released their UFO files, which basically confirms that the UFOs are real.

KING: They say that.

FOX: Yes.

KING: France has announced that UFOs are real?

FOX: The head of CNS just released 50 years of profiles. I went to interview the guy, Jacques Pattinet (ph), just recently, and I said to him, this is an amazing discovery. How are the French reacting to that? He said, no one is jumping out of windows.

KING: Not only is anybody jumping out of windows, it ain't a story. I haven't seen it.

FOX: It did get covered a little bit, not a whole lot, but a little bit.

KING: Why not?

FOX: I don't know.

NYE: There's a lot of things --

FOX: You had a show about it. England followed suit and releasing their documents. I asked him. I said, what would you like to say to the American government? He said, don't be afraid to tell the people the truth.

NYE: Exactly. You see something in the sky that you don't know what it is, it doesn't mean they're aliens.

FOX: Sixty years of technology --

KING: But if France announces that they're there, why doesn't that impress you?

NYE: What does they're there.

FOX: It's 50 years of scientific study.

NYE: You guys --

FOX: It's been soil analysis, photographic analysis.

NYE: When I was young you couldn't make a plane without a vertical tail. Now you can. That doesn't mean that there are aliens.

FOX: I'm not saying there are aliens. I'm saying there are disk shaped craft, physical phenomena that defy physics as we understand it today.

KING: Do they defy physics?

FRIEDMAN: No, it means we don't know how to duplicate it yet. That doesn't mean it's impossible. I worked on fusion propulsion systems. It's what goes on in the sun, a lot of energy per pound in material, back 40 years ago, Larry. We haven't built a big system because it takes a lot of money and effort.

KING: Guys, we're out of time. Thanks. Another in our series of programs searching for an answer. Go to CNN.com/LarryKing for transcripts, ring tones, photo galleries, and more. Don't forget about tonight's vote: is the United States government hiding knowledge of UFOs? And we've got a UFO commentary from the former Arizona governor. Our latest podcast, Barack Obama, is all ready for downloading. You can also sign up for our news letter or cell phone text alerts. It's all at CNN.com/LarryKing.

 

[Laura]

From: _http://media.www.thecurrentsauce.com/media/storage/paper178/news/2005/11/10/News/Professional.Ufo.Researcher.Delivers.Presentation.At.Nsu-1059674.shtml

Professional UFO researcher delivers presentation at NSU
Kyle Shirley
Issue date: 11/10/05 Section: News

What you are about to see and hear may seem like science fiction, paranoid delusions or an elaborate practical joke. I assure you it is none of those things," professional UFO researcher Robert Hastings said at the onset of his presentation Tuesday night in Magale Recital Hall.

About 150 people attended Hastings' presentation "UFOs: The Hidden History." Hastings said this lecture is the product of almost four decades of research on the U.S. government's efforts to conceal the existence of UFOs from the public.

Hastings employed excerpts from over 100,000 pages of previously classified documents he and other researchers have obtained through the Freedom of Information Act as well as interviews with retired Air Force personnel in an attempt to prove that UFOs are real and the government is well aware of them.

"Whether or not this deception by the U.S. government on the American public was and is justifiable… is open to debate," Hastings said. "My opinion is that it is simply a matter of time- it may be tomorrow, it may be another 50 years- but all of this will be out in the open.

"I think we're all in for a very interesting future, if not a rude awakening."

The lecture included a slideshow, the presentation of federal documents pertaining to UFO encounters and a question and answer session.

The bulk of Hastings' presentation focused on UFO sightings at or near military sites, particularly those that house nuclear weapons. Hastings said these incidents only account for about one percent of all UFO encounters, but he finds them to be of significance because UFO sightings have increased dramatically since the invention of nuclear weapons.

Following the first wave of UFO sightings in the U.S. in 1947, Hastings said the Air Force began the first UFO research project, SIGN. He said this was followed by a CIA "debunking" campaign that began in 1957 to prevent panic among U.S. citizens. Hastings said this campaign is still in effect today.

Hastings said his research has left him completely convinced that UFOs exist and are extraterrestrial in nature.

"I no longer have the luxury of taking that leap of faith and saying, 'This isn't real,'" Hastings said. "There are too many independent sources, too much radar data saying there are craft doing things in our atmosphere that we can't even do today. So the inference is that some form of higher technology is here. I just can't believe that some secret human project is responsible for all this."

 

[Laura]

From:

Plot Thickens in Texas UFO Crisis

Tonopah redux?

As we reported here a few days back folks in Texas are seeing UFOs and now the Air Force appears to be changing it's story a bit. The plot thickens. This from a report running in Military.com's headlines right now:

Fighter jets were training nearby the night dozens of Stephenville-area residents reported seeing a UFO this month, Air Force Reserve officials said Jan. 23, backtracking on earlier statements.

The announcement did little to satisfy residents of Texas dairy country who swear that what they saw in the sky Jan. 8 was no airplane. Some said it even bolstered their claims, because several people reported seeing at least two fighter jets chasing an object.

"This supports our story that there was UFO activity in that area," said Kenneth Cherry, the Texas director of the Mutual UFO Network, which took more than 50 reports from locals at a meeting last weekend. "I find it curious that it took them two weeks to 'fess up. I think they're feeling the heat from the publicity."

Officials at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth initially said none of their planes had been in the area, but on Wednesday they said 10 F-16s were there that day. The officials said they were mistaken and wanted to set the record straight "in the interest of public awareness."

Public awareness, indeed. Something is rotten in Denmark . . . and Texas. Remember, this is the same organization that developed the F-117 in the Nevada desert for years and years without anybody knowing about it. Have the citizens of Texas been given an unintentional glimpse of a black program?

Read the entire report here.

(Image: Secret base at Tonopah, Nevada where the F-117 was developed.)

-- Ward

Here: _http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003957.html

Air Force Ignores UFO Threat

And they laughed at Dennis Kucinich, didn't they?

This hot off the AP presses:

Several dozen people — including a pilot, county constable and business owners — insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."

While federal officials insist there's a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.

Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But he decided to come forward after reading similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

"You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal," Sorrells said. "It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I'm not crazy."

Sorrells said he has seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifle's telescopic lens and described it as very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.

Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8, when most people reported the sighting.

Lewis said the object may have been an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes. Lights from the aircraft would seem unusually bright and may appear orange from the setting sun.

"I'm 90 percent sure this was an airliner," Lewis said. "With the sun's angle, it can play tricks on you."

Officials at the region's two Air Force bases — Dyess in Abilene and Sheppard in Wichita Falls — also said none of their aircraft were in the area last week. The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs.

The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs? Then what the heck do we need the F-22 for?

-- Ward

Here: _http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,160647,00.html?wh=news

'Oh, You Mean Those UFOs!'
Associated Press | January 24, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fighter jets were training nearby the night dozens of Stephenville-area residents reported seeing a UFO this month, Air Force Reserve officials said Jan. 23, backtracking on earlier statements.

The announcement did little to satisfy residents of Texas dairy country who swear that what they saw in the sky Jan. 8 was no airplane. Some said it even bolstered their claims, because several people reported seeing at least two fighter jets chasing an object.

"This supports our story that there was UFO activity in that area," said Kenneth Cherry, the Texas director of the Mutual UFO Network, which took more than 50 reports from locals at a meeting last weekend. "I find it curious that it took them two weeks to 'fess up. I think they're feeling the heat from the publicity."

Officials at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth initially said none of their planes had been in the area, but on Wednesday they said 10 F-16s were there that day. The officials said they were mistaken and wanted to set the record straight "in the interest of public awareness."

Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the base, declined to comment on the nature of the military training or say whether it took place on other days.

Lewis had said earlier this month that residents might have seen an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes and reflections from the setting sun. On Wednesday, he said he should not have speculated about the reported sightings.

From well-respected business owners to a county constable, several dozen people say they saw a flying object that was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said its lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane.

"I guarantee that what we saw was not a civilian aircraft," Steve Allen, a pilot and freight company owner, said Wednesday.

The planes' training area in the Brownwood Military Operating Area includes Stephenville's Erath County, but Allen said it does not include the airspace where he saw the object. Also, Jan. 8 was not the only day sightings were reported.

Anne Frazor, who owns a fabric store in Stephenville, about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth, said many in town have seen military aircraft zoom overhead from time to time as part of training operations. But she said that wasn't what she saw Jan. 8.

"I couldn't begin to say what it was, but to me it wasn't planes," Frazor said.

Since the reported sightings two weeks ago, the 17,000-resident city is having fun with the international publicity. Some high-schoolers made T-shirts depicting a flying saucer beaming up a cow with the messages: "Stephenville: the new Roswell" and "They're here for the milk!" Several stores put new messages on their marquees, including "Aliens welcome."

This week Tarleton State University is even hosting a lecture by a UFO researcher on the U.S. government's secret response to UFOs, based on previously classified documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The U.S. Air Force says it has not investigated UFO sightings since 1969 when it ended Project Blue Book, which examined more than 12,600 reported UFO sightings - including 700 that were never explained. That program started a few months after the 1947 crash near Roswell, N.M., of an aircraft the government said was a top-secret weather balloon but others have claimed was an alien spacecraft.

"What we want is the government to admit there are UFOs and what they know about them," Cherry said.

 

[hugo]

Hastings recently appeared on CNN's Larry King Live (7/18/08) to discuss his 35-year investigation of UFO sightings at U.S. nuclear weapons installations, including Minuteman missile sites at five different U.S. Air Force bases. Utilizing declassified USAF, FBI and CIA documents

[moderation : signature removed. Spam is not allowed on this forum]

 

[durabone]

Finding this one on Reuters was unexpected. Thanks for this thread! ENJOY

_http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS166901+15-Sep-2010+PRN20100915

Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:44am EDT
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15

Ex-military men say unknown intruders have monitored and even tampered with American nuclear missiles

Group to call on U.S. Government to reveal the facts

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Witness testimony from more than 120 former or retired military personnel points to an ongoing and alarming intervention by unidentified aerial objects at nuclear weapons sites, as recently as 2003. In some cases, several nuclear missiles simultaneously and inexplicably malfunctioned while a disc-shaped object silently hovered nearby. Six former U.S. Air Force officers and one former enlisted man will break their silence about these events at the National Press Club and urge the government to publicly confirm their reality.

One of them, ICBM launch officer Captain Robert Salas, was on duty during one missile disruption incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base and was ordered to never discuss it. Another participant, retired Col. Charles Halt, observed a disc-shaped object directing beams of light down into the RAF Bentwaters airbase in England and heard on the radio that they landed in the nuclear weapons storage area. Both men will provide stunning details about these events, and reveal how the U.S. military responded.

Captain Salas notes, "The U.S. Air Force is lying about the national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases and we can prove it." Col. Halt adds, "I believe that the security services of both the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted—both then and now—to subvert the significance of what occurred at RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation."

The group of witnesses and a leading researcher, who has brought them together for the first time, will discuss the national security implications of these and other alarmingly similar incidents and will urge the government to reveal all information about them. This is a public-awareness issue.

Declassified U.S. government documents, to be distributed at the event, now substantiate the reality of UFO activity at nuclear weapons sites extending back to 1948. The press conference will also address present-day concerns about the abuse of government secrecy as well as the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons.

WHO: Dwynne Arneson, USAF Lt. Col. Ret., communications center officer-in-charge

Bruce Fenstermacher, former USAF nuclear missile launch officer

Charles Halt, USAF Col. Ret., former deputy base commander

Robert Hastings, researcher and author

Robert Jamison, former USAF nuclear missile targeting officer

Patrick McDonough, former USAF nuclear missile site geodetic surveyor

Jerome Nelson, former USAF nuclear missile launch officer

Robert Salas, former USAF nuclear missile launch officer

 

[Palinurus]

Just for the record,

SOTT has carried a three part redo of articles from early 1982 by A. Hovni (pseudonym of Antonio Huneeus) on this very subject here:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/249465-UFOs-and-atomic-nuclear-plants

The work of Robert Hastings was mentioned in the opening statement:

The subject of UFOs spotted at missile bases and other sensitive nuclear facilities has received quite a bit of attention in recent years thanks to the great research of longtime ufologist Robert Hastings, author of the book UFOs and Nukes - Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites. Hastings was also the sponsor of a significant panel of former military witnesses of these incidents at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, DC on September 27, 2010. He wrote the cover story, "UFO/Nuclear Connection," for Open Minds magazine issue 7 (April/May 2011), where he discussed the media impact of his NPC event.

Long before all this I had treaded some of the same territory for a three-part series I wrote in early 1982, under the pseudonym of A. Hovni, for the supplement UFOs and other Cosmic Phenomena, published weekly by the longtime defunct New York City newspaper The News World. I did extensive research on the declassified UFO files of the CIA, FBI, USAF, U.S. Army and Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which had then been recently released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The files clearly showed that the military and intelligence agencies were quite worried during the early period of the flying saucer era in the late forties and early fifties by the large amount of UFO sightings over sensitive nuclear facilities. Many resulted in the scramble of fighter planes. This was the height of the Cold War and a climate of "red menace" paranoia was rampant in at least parts of the U.S. government. Many of the UFO-nuke documents come under the heading of "Protection of Vital Installations."

**EDIT** to add other cross references to Robert Hastings here (from the Richard Dolan thread):

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,565.msg195197.html#msg195197
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,565.msg195604.html#msg195604
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,565.msg196138.html#msg196138
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,565.msg196713.html#msg196713
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,565.msg197605.html#msg197605
http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,565.msg197735.html#msg197735