from ExopoliticsJournal Website
In the early 1950’s a select group of individuals began to publicly make claims of having had direct physical contact with ‘human looking’ representatives of different extraterrestrial civilizations.
These ‘contactees’ claimed to have been given knowledge of the extraterrestrials’ advanced technologies, philosophical beliefs and their efforts to assist humanity in becoming part of a galactic society where open contact with off world civilizations would occur.
Contactees described the Extraterrestrials as benign, very respectful of human free will, and ancestrally linked to humanity (thus dubbed the “space brothers”.) Further revealed by the contactees was that extraterrestrials, who were in many cases indistinguishable from humans, had secretly integrated into human society.2
The apparent goals were to better
acquaint themselves with different national cultures, and/or to
participate in an educational uplift program to prepare humanity for
galactic status. Contactees began to disseminate to the general
public the nature of their experiences and knowledge gained through
interaction with extraterrestrials.
This presented an urgent technological problem that required vast national resources to bridge the technological gap with extraterrestrials. It led to a second Manhattan project whose existence and secret funding would be known only to those with a “need to know.” 3
Manhattan II, along with evidence of
extraterrestrial visitors and technologies, would be kept secret
from the general public, the media and most elected political
This was encouraging growing numbers of individuals to participate in a covert extraterrestrial effort to prepare humanity for “galactic status” - where the existence of extraterrestrials would be officially acknowledged and open interaction would occur. Also included was the issue of nuclear disarmament.
Tens of thousands of individuals
supported the contactees who distributed newsletters, spoke at
conferences and traveled widely spreading their information for
peacefully transforming the planet, and calling for an immediate end
to the development of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons threatened
more than humanity’s future according to the extraterrestrials.
Every detonation disrupted the fabric of space that could also
seriously affect their own worlds in destructive ways.
Enormous revolutionary potential for the entire planet was put forward. Thus, contactees presented an urgent national security need for an extensive counter-intelligence program. Preventing the contactee movement from becoming a catalyst for global changes through the teachings and experiences gained from extraterrestrials became top priority.
Consequently, a highly secret and ruthless counter-intelligence program was finally implemented that directly targeted contactees and their supporters. A series of covert intelligence programs were implemented that aimed to neutralize the revolutionary potential of the contactee movement.
These programs evolved in three stages that resulted in the final counter-intelligence program that was adopted to eliminate any threat posed by contactees.
All three stages of the covert programs
employed against contactees were secretly run by the CIA, the
Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and the NSA, whose
field agents were directly aware of the reality of extraterrestrial
life, and the contact and communications occurring with private
Agencies Monitor Contactees
Declassified FBI documents establish that prominent contactees were subjected to close monitoring where their statements and activities were investigated, and field agents directly issued reports to the FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover. Field agent reports suggest that the FBI Director was seriously trying to apprise himself of the revolutionary potential posed by contactees and the threat to U.S. national security.
is not surprising given documentation that suggests the FBI was
largely left out of the intelligence loop concerning
extraterrestrial technologies.6 Hoover was probably relying on
surveillance of contactees to apprise himself of the true situation
He subsequently established regular ‘telepathic’ communications with them where he was given information that he shared with his many supporters and public authorities.
Popularity grew rapidly for Van Tassel
who had many thousands that read his newsletters and attended his
public lectures. Thousands also attended Van Tassel’s annual Giant
Rock Flying Saucer conventions in the Mojave Desert that began in
1954, and over a 23 year period became the key annual event for the contactee movement.
This led to a meeting between Major S. Avner of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) who met with a liaison for the FBI, and culminated in Van Tassel being interviewed by the two Special Agents on November 16, 1954. The agents sent an extensive memo to J. Edgar Hoover detailing Van Tassel’s claims to having been visited by extraterrestrials.8
Revealed by the memo is Hoover’s special interest in what the extraterrestrials had to say about the atomic weapons, an upcoming Third World War, and their ability to telepathically communicate with Van Tassel.
Undisputedly, Van Tassel was closely monitored by the FBI as evidenced in a document dated April 12, 1965 which states:
Another contactee who received much FBI attention was George Adamski.
Adamski first became known in 1947 for his photos of flying saucers and motherships taken with an amateur telescope on Mount Palomar, California, that received wide coverage. He became the most well known of all contactees due to his internationally bestselling books describing his meetings with extraterrestrials.
The first book, Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953), was based on his November 20, 1952 Desert Center encounter with "Orthon” the Venusian occupant of an extraterrestrial scoutcraft. Orthon proceeded to tell Adamski about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and the possibility that all life could be destroyed in an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.
Four months later, in February 1953, Adamski claimed to have had another encounter. He was picked up by two extraterrestrials at a Los Angeles hotel lobby, and driven to a secret location where he again met Orthon and was taken inside a Venusian mothercraft.10
Adamski’s UFO sightings and contacts with
extraterrestrials were supported by an impressive collection of
witnesses, photographs and films that a number of independent
investigators concluded were not hoaxes.11
Also according to the FBI source, Adamski claimed,
Predictably, such comments led to Adamski being viewed as a “security matter.” 14
The source was never revealed by the FBI
and so there was no way to evaluate the source’s objectivity in
relaying such prejudicial information. Adamski’s claims that the
extraterrestrials viewed the development of nuclear weapons as a
threat of the future of humanity, was a cause of deep concern among
officials. It was such views that led to the FBI considering him,
along with George Van Tassel, as a subversive that required close
monitoring according to a 1952 document.15
The representatives demanded that Adamski sign a document that his material did not have official clearance. J. Edgar Hoover’s office received the FBI and Air Force representatives’ report, together with the signed document. Popularity and Adamski’s international travel led to the FBI and other intelligence agencies paying close attention to his statements and public reactions.
Adamski claimed to have been given private audiences with Pope John XXIII, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and other VIP’s.17
In February 1959 Adamski traveled to New
Zealand, and spoke before packed audiences. A one page Foreign
Service Dispatch with Adamski’s key talking points was circulated to
the FBI, CIA, Air Force and Navy thus confirming continued
monitoring of Adamski.
Information relayed by contactees concerning the social and economic systems of the extraterrestrials, together with the extraterrestrials’ criticism of the nuclear weapons development occurring around the globe, led to them and their supporters being considered a security threat. Given U.S. national hysteria over communism during the McCarthy Era, this led to counter-intelligence programs being implemented against the contactees.
Debunking and discrediting contactee
claims were the most significant activities that occurred.
Solid justification for such a psychological program was built on the famous 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles. A renowned book on Wells’ broadcast by Dr Hadley Cantril focused on the psychology of panic, and was later widely cited by national security experts in relation to public interest over flying saucer reports.
Consequently the CIA led covert psychological operations that would ‘educate’ the American public about the ‘correct facts’ concerning flying saucer reports and contactee claims.
One of the first actions taken by the CIA was to initiate the creation of an inter-agency government group called the Psychological Strategy Board that would deal with national security threats through covert psychological operations.
July 18, 1951.
Gordon Gray (right), being administered the oath as the first Director of the new Psychological Strategy Board by Frank K. Sanderson (left),
while President Harry S. Truman (center) witnesses the event.
A Presidential Directive on April 4, 1951, created the Psychological Strategy Board,
Initially set up by Gordon Gray, a top
advisor to President Truman at the time (and also later with
President Eisenhower), the Psychological Strategy Board was an
interagency organization that was initially located within the CIA,
but reported to the National Security Council. Ostensibly the
Psychological Strategy Board would lead covert psychological
operations to deal with the Cold War threat.
Evidenced in leaked government documents, Gray is described as a founding member of the secret control group, allegedly titled Majestic-12 Special Studies Group (MJ-12), which took charge of the extraterrestrial issue.
According to one of the leaked Majestic
Documents, President Truman created the Psychological Strategy Board
after recommendation by the head of MJ-12. Gray’s leadership and
the role of MJ-12 in its creation, helps confirm that the
Psychological Strategy Board was created to run psychological
operations to shape public opinion on the extraterrestrial issue.
This required the creation of a suitable
national security cover for psychological operations against the
American public. Victory would be achieved by the formation of a
panel of experts that could shape government policy and intelligence
activities against those involved in extraterrestrial affairs.
Consequently, the CIA secretly convened a public panel of
‘impartial’ experts to discuss the available physical evidence.
The Report is key to understanding the institutionally sanctioned debunking and discrediting of evidence concerning extraterrestrial life.
Confirmation of the leading role of the CIA in convening the panel and choosing experts appears in the Durant Report itself, despite efforts to suppress the CIA’s role in early releases of sanitized versions.
The CIA’s Intelligence Advisory Committee had agreed that the,
Almost exclusively the Report focused on the national security threat posed by foreign powers exploiting the American public’s belief in the flying saucer phenomenon.
Consequently, the Robertson panel recommended an ‘educational program’ to remove the threat posed by enemy nations exploiting the public’s belief in flying saucers:
In conclusion, a Panel convened by the CIA, with experts chosen by the CIA, reviewed a selection of flying saucer cases over a 12 hour period spread over four days, and concluded that the public’s psychological reaction to flying saucers was the basis of a possible security threat.
The Cold War provided the necessary security environment for the CIA and interagency entities such as the Psychological Strategy Board, to claim that flying saucers could be exploited by the Soviet Union using psychological warfare techniques.
Consequently, psychological operations would have to be conducted through the mass media and official agencies to debunk flying saucer reports, and remove the possible threat. Irrespective of the truth of contactee’s claims of having met with extraterrestrials, this meant the public’s possible reaction to the reality of flying saucers and extraterrestrial life justified debunking all contactee reports.
Debunking techniques that could be used to discredit contactees as reliable witnesses and make their claims appear ridiculous included:
The Durant Report created the necessary legal justification to debunk evidence provided by contactees regardless of the merits of their claims.
This is evidenced by the way in which the FBI and other intelligence agencies privately interacted with contactees, and then made public statements or leaked information to the media in ways that questioned the integrity of contactees.
For example, Adamski had communicated with the FBI, AFOSI and the Pentagon over the content of material he would put in his books, or documents he would present to the public. This is not surprising given that many contactees, like Adamski, were former military servicemen that understood the importance of not doing anything to threaten national security.
Adamski was led to believe that he was cleared to distribute a particular document, and had made public statements to this effect. This led to the head of the FBI’s public relations department, Louis B. Nichols, instructing Special Agent Willis to meet with Adamski concerning the particular document in question.
A subsequent FBI report dated 16 December 1953, stated:
The FBI made public its views about Adamski’s alleged behavior in a way that delivered a “huge blow to Adamski’s credibility.”
At the time when the general public believed unquestionably in the accuracy of statements made by public officials, such negative comments would be sufficient to end one’s career or credibility.
Certainly, many in the general public interested in the flying saucer phenomenon now believed Adamski to be a fraud. This was especially so for those advocating a scientific investigation of flying saucers. What the public did not realize was that intelligence agencies such as the FBI and AFOSI were intent on debunking contactees as a matter of policy due to the threat they posed to national security.
Thus contactees could be easily “set up” to believe something informally told to them by insiders, and then be publicly confronted by other officials claiming they had made fraudulent statements when they could not confirm what they had been told.
Another way in which contactee claims were debunked was to have tabloid newspapers such as the National Enquirer publish sensational reports that embellished on actual contactee testimonies or were entirely fabricated by staff reporters. Any subsequent investigations by researchers would demonstrate that such claims were exaggerated or unfounded, thereby tainting the contactees and UFO research more generally.
What was not generally known was that the National Enquirer was created and controlled by known CIA assets whose covert assignment was to ridicule the entire flying saucer phenomena. Gene Pope bought the New York Enquirer in 1952, and relaunched it as The National Enquirer in 1954.
Pope was listed in his Who’s Who biography as being a former CIA intelligence officer and being involved in “psychological warfare.”
Chief instrument of the covert psychological operations used to debunk contactee claims and flying saucer reports was The National Enquirer with its sensationalistic tabloid style.
The National Enquirer along with other media sources
covering contactee claims were part of the education program that
required the debunking of flying saucer reports. Predictably, the
result of the sensationalist tabloid approach to contactee claims
was that serious reporters and researchers would avoid stories
covered by The National Enquirer.
This is evidenced in remarks by leading UFO researchers such as Major Donald Keyhoe who emphasized the need to separate genuine UFO reports from “the mass of wild tales and usually ridiculous “contactee” claims”. 
Keyhoe along with other UFO researchers were greatly concerned about contactee claims that were being exaggerated by the press,
Essentially, Keyhoe viewed contactee reports as an embarrassment that needed to be separated from the more scientifically oriented UFO research.
Other prominent UFO researchers followed Keyhoe’s approach thus creating a major schism among those convinced extraterrestrial life was visiting the earth.
Successful debunking of reports of flying saucers and extraterrestrial life made it possible for the CIA, FBI and military intelligence agencies, to move to the third stage of their covert psychological operations.
Next, full scale counter-intelligence
warfare techniques to disrupt and neutralize the contactee movement.
It was primarily run by the FBI; other intelligence agencies such as the CIA and NSA assisted in select covert activities. COINTELPRO assumed that political dissidents in the U.S. were being influenced by foreign powers in ways deemed a threat to U.S. national security.
It is worth reviewing the techniques used by COINTELPRO with regard to political dissidents to understand what occurred against contactees. In the case of both contactees and political dissidents, the influence of “foreign powers” was thought to justify military style counter-intelligence programs to disrupt and neutralize these groups.
The “off world” nature of one of these
‘foreign powers’, extraterrestrials, did not appreciably change the
nature of the counterintelligence methods used against both
‘contactees’ and political dissidents. In both cases, the activities
of these groups were deemed to be threats to U.S. national security.
In 1975, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church investigated COINTELPRO’s methods and targets, and published a detailed report in 1976.
The Church Committee described COINTELPRO as follows:
Counterintelligence, as defined by the Church Committee, constitutes,
The Committee described how,
The Committee described COINTELPRO as a series of covert actions taken against American citizens, and was part of a “rough, tough, dirty business” according to William Sullivan, assistant to the FBI Director.
The Committee learned that:
The Committee found that COINTELPRO had,
Between the years 1960-1974, over 500,000 investigations had been launched of potential subversives of the U.S. government, but no charges were ever laid under statutes concerning overthrow of the U.S. government.
The Committee grouped the activities conducted by COINTELPRO under the following headings:
The Committee found that:
More disturbingly, the Church Committee
concluded that: “Unsavory and vicious tactics have been
shown earlier in the cases of Van Tassel and Adamski, contactee
claims dealing with a range of socio-economic and military policies
from the perspective of extraterrestrial life, were viewed as
subversive and a direct threat to U.S. national security.
The Report described the unpredictability of societal reactions to such a discovery:
Devastating societal effects, according to the Report, could result from contact with more technologically advanced off world societies:
The Brookings Report went on to raise the possibility of suppressing any announcement of extraterrestrial life or artifacts for national security reasons:
Consequently, it is clear that official
fear over societal responses to any official announcement of
extraterrestrial life was a paramount national security concern. A
powerful justification for the use of COINTELPRO against contactees
had been found.
Victory would be achieved by convincing more technically oriented supporters of a purely scientific approach that the contactee movement would discredit “serious” researchers. To help convince supporters of a scientific approach that their efforts would eventually bear fruit, an official Air Force investigation was launched in 1952.
Project Blue Book was little more than a
public relations exercise by the U.S. Air Force to convince the
general public and UFO researchers that it was taking UFO reports
seriously. In reality, Project Blue Book provided minimal resources
for a serious UFO investigation and primarily acted as a vehicle for
defusing public interest in UFO reports.
It would “train” the general public how to correctly evaluate the UFO data in ways that would defuse public and media interest in such reports. In short, Project Blue Book was a key part of the covert psychological operations being conducted to convince the general public and media that UFO reports were not important, and not worth considering.
Nevertheless, the status of Project Blue
Book as an official Air Force investigation encouraged UFO
researchers that rigorous sufficient methods and research would
eventually bear fruit. Such hopes were dashed in 1969 by the
Committee’s final report which publicly put an end to the Air Force
investigation and Project Blue Book.
UFO researchers would be encouraged to attack contactee reports as unscientific, prone to delusion or fraud, and an insult to ‘serious’ UFO research. Statements by leading UFO researchers such as Dr Allen Hynek, a former consultant to Project Blue Book, provide evidence that such a process occurred.
In a book purporting to provide the scientific foundations of UFO research, Dr J. Allen Hynek dismissed testimonies of contactees who he regarded as “pseudoreligious fanatics” with “low credibility value:”
As Hynek’s statement makes clear, UFO researchers attacked contactee reports with great vigor to defuse what they considered to be a major challenge to serious public consideration of UFO reports.
By encouraging UFO researchers that a purely scientific method would result in the truth about UFOs and extraterrestrial life eventually coming out, Galactic COINTELPRO succeeded in creating a major schism among those accepting the reality of UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
By the end of the 1960’s, the contactee
movement had been so thoroughly debunked and discredited by UFO
researchers, that COINTELPRO no longer needed to have Project Blue
Book continue. UFO researchers had become an unwitting accomplice of
intelligence agencies secretly conducting the various covert
psychological programs that made up Galactic COINTELPRO.
The mysterious Men In Black (MIB) phenomenon has been described by various researchers who discovered that individuals with extraterrestrial related experiences were often threatened and harassed by well dressed men in dark business suits who gave the appearance of being public officials.
Evidence that elite intelligence groups were tasked to intimidate, harasses and even “neutralize” contactees or others with direct experience with extraterrestrials or their technology appears in a leaked document that a number of veteran UFO researchers consider to be legitimate.
The Special Operations Manual (SOM1-01) states:
Investigations were also conducted by the US Air Force that was concerned by reports that MIB impersonated Air Force officials.
A March 1, 1967 memo prepared by the Assistant
Vice Chief of Staff described incidents where civilians had been
contacted by individuals claiming to be members of NORAD and
demanded evidence possessed by witnesses.
The CIA was involved in coordinating debunking and discrediting efforts against contactees through a public education program outlined in the Durant Report. The NSA and NRO were involved in tracking communications and interactions with extraterrestrial life, and provided enforcement teams to withdraw evidence and intimidate contactees into silence.
Galactic COINTELPRO could therefore minimize the amount of extraterrestrial related information held by different sections in each intelligence agency where agents were instructed to perform specific functions. Most out of the loop concerning the reality of extraterrestrial life and the merit of contactee claims was the FBI.
On the other hand, the NSA and NRO appeared to be most in the loop due to their monitoring of extraterrestrial activities through electronic communication and satellite imagery. Military intelligence agencies appeared to fill intermediate functions where they supported Galactic COINTELPRO without being given access to all information concerning extraterrestrial life and projects.
This is evidenced in Vice Admiral Tom
Wilson, the head of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J-2)
in 1998 who reportedly was out of the loop on extraterrestrial
related projects. 
Primarily the threat from the extraterrestrials was that they would succeed in having contactees convince large portions of the American and global public for comprehensive policy changes to prepare humanity for status as a galactic society.
Such policy changes were considered a direct security threat by policy makers in the U.S. and in other countries who were briefed about the reality of extraterrestrial life.
Galactic COINTELPRO involved three interrelated phases that culminated in a comprehensive counter-intelligence program to neutralize and disrupt the threat posed by the contactee movement.
Galactic COINTELPRO could not have succeeded without the unwitting assistance of veteran UFO researchers who were all too eager to dismiss contactee claims as unscientific and prone to delusion or fraud.
Such researchers failed miserably to anticipate the Galactic COINTELPRO that had been implemented to disrupt and neutralize contactee testimonies, and readily accepted official statements questioning the integrity of contactee claims.
Indeed, the eagerness with which UFO
researchers established themselves as the gatekeepers of serious
scientific research into UFOs, and debunked contactee claims marks
the most tragic aspect of six decades of research into UFOs and
The success of debunking and
discrediting contactees would have to depend on intelligence agents
believing contactees were a genuine security threat. Consequently,
extraterrestrial related information was made available on a strict
need to know basis ensuring that only a selected group of
individuals within different intelligence agencies were briefed at
Table 1. U.S. Intelligence Agencies and Galactic COINTELPRO
It appears that such an outcome was intended as part of an official Galactic COINTELPRO that continues to the present day.
In contrast to the termination of the FBI’s COINTELPRO against political dissidents in 1971; it is very likely that individuals in public office, the mass media and among the UFO research community may be active agents of an ongoing COINTELPRO against contactees.
It is hoped that exposure of Galactic COINTELPRO will help dispel the reflexive dismissal of contactee testimonies that has up to the present hindered an objective evaluation of direct physical contact between private citizens and extraterrestrial life.