A.D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth About Alien Contact (50 page)

We need to bring our game up. This means that more is not always better. More misspelled, angry rants littered with unfounded assumptions and leaps of faith do not help. They only provide the secret-keepers, and the rank-and-file of citizens, with the ammunition they need to dismiss us as amateurish. The crazier we sound, the lower our public credibility. As in public speaking, so too in public writing: learn your facts, avoid hyperbole, and lower your voice.

This is so, even if the final answers to this mystery are more bizarre, more shattering, than anything we have even suggested in this book. The reason is simple: you cannot lead unless you have followers. Those around you, who know nothing of this topic, nothing of its profound implications, cannot always so easily dive into its depths. One step at a time is the surest way to keep other heads nodding, one step at a time in a logical, defensible sequence.

Of course, it is perfectly normal to speculate. It is even smart to do so, providing you distinguish between what you know and what you think you know, and providing you remind others of this difference. No one has every answer, and no one will expect you to have them all, either. Be comfortable with uncertainty.

Now is the time to begin the transition from an Internet collected group of “conspiracy theorists” to a potent political force of openness and honesty. We need to elevate our standards and take inspiration from political movements of the past. The civil rights movement may be the best example of any. No political group can ever act perfectly, nor will we always agree with our leaders, nor they with themselves. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X did not see eye-to-eye on tactics, but they both knew there was a mountain to climb.

If the UFO/ET reality is about a powerful signal that is obscured by the distortion of noise, it is time to focus on the signal. Even in writing this book, we were mindful that we needed to present an argument in a sequence that would not alienate readers needing to understand the basics before appreciating the nuances. As an example, it is important that people understand and accept that at least some UFOs are physical, structured craft from somewhere that is not here. They must become comfortable with that basic understanding before they can appreciate Zeti-Reticuli, Nordics, abductions, and other challenging concepts.

We have to stop talking only to ourselves. Although it is nice to meet with other like-minded individuals in meetings and conferences and even virtually, this is not where the battle will be won. Posting on our own websites will not force the hand of the secret-keepers. We need to move beyond our circles into the circles of others. Talk to people who do not believe or know what you know. Persuade them. Spend less time with those who agree with you, more with those who disagree.

The battle for UFO Disclosure comes from millions and millions of individual conversations, individually and in groups, with people who simply do not believe. It involves speaking to our friends, family, and colleagues in a calm and rational way. This often involves substantial bravery. After more than 60 years of denial and ridicule, it is always easier to keep quiet about this, especially in polite company. The antidote to ridicule is knowledge.

This involves work. Read more. Think more critically. Remember that you are an activist in a wholly new kind of political movement. So many years ago, during the Vietnam War, the images that motivated change were on the news every night. In our movement, the images and facts are not on the news. Quite the opposite. We seek to force acknowledgement of a reality that has long been hushed up and swept away. We must explain that we are not waiting for radio telescopes to confirm other life in the universe. We are waiting for the rest of the world to wake up and see that which has been placed before them, but which most have refused to see.

Do not ask politicians if they believe in UFOs. In today’s climate, their only appropriate answer to that question will be to dodge it. Instead ask them to their faces, during campaigns, if they support full disclosure of UFO related material. Ask them if they know anyone who has ever seen a UFO. Ask them if they believe we are alone in the universe. They can answer these questions without getting branded by their opponents, and it helps us build a consensus.

Particularly important to remember is that most of the people involved in secrecy have their own friends and neighbors. They live in nice homes, get married, have children, maybe even go to soccer games. But they also lead a double life in which they carry this incredible secret around with them, every day. Anyone you meet in government, aerospace, technology and the military—particularly those in private industry as contractors—is a potential candidate for being one of them, or knowing someone who is. Speak your mind to these people about the need to end the secrecy.

Be the change you want to see. You know this is real. Go about your daily life and make sure you let others know that you know. Change the dynamic one person at a time.

Then, one day, when the mass sighting or the physical evidence or the deathbed confession pushes the issue to the top of international agenda, the secret-keepers will look around and realize that we already know, and they will finally come clean.

It can happen. It starts with you.

Our Last Thought

The journey we have taken to write this book has been life-altering. We have been forced to consider things that others have danced over lightly in previous books, or even ignored altogether. We have had to look
inside our own souls to try seeing the souls of our fellow humans, even those of the Others.

The Others are the great wildcard in this game. They have always had it in their power to disclose themselves, yet they decline to do so. Will the fact that we have disclosed them to ourselves change their thinking? Perhaps in such a scenario, Disclosure will be the active ingredient in creating whatever comes next.

Will knowing that Others are lurking in our own neighborhood create the “oneness of man” that so many have speculated about? Will former adversaries suddenly reconcile? North and South Korea? Israel and the Arabs? India and Pakistan? The United States and its list of terrorists? Multinational corporations and their competitors, to say nothing of the rest of the world?

Probably not, to say the least. Disclosure may, however, focus our attention in new ways that can benefit us and lead to resolution of thorny problems.

A study such as this, which seeks to peer into a volatile future, can never be complete. This is especially so, as it is the first of its kind. Many will disagree with some of our conclusions. We have simply done our best to advance the cause of ending secrecy and beginning Disclosure. Others will follow and draw different conclusions. Only when Disclosure is a reality will we truly know how it will unfold.

The world will change with this knowledge, of that there can be no doubt. Merely contemplating this reality changes a person, but actually seeing it may be almost too much to bear. We shall see.

The only thing we can know for certain is that no one has the right to hold such a deep knowledge from the rest of us, no matter what it is, no
matter how it might change us. The policy of denial, the policy of lies, does not propel us forward. It only holds humanity hostage.

We are ready to be told. It is time for truth to turn the page.

Even after that happens, it will take at least a quarter-century before our changed world dynamic becomes something of a routine to live with. Then, finally, we as a species will perhaps embrace the idea that we have company in the universe, that some of these Others are long-term visitors. Of course, by that time, we may be visiting strange new worlds ourselves. We may then become “Others” to other intelligent species, and hide our presence from them as was done to us.

Soon, we shall tell ourselves the truth. The day is coming when we shall look toward the stars and see ourselves looking back.

Notes

Chapter 2

1
. “Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs,” a.k.a. “The Brookings Report.” Submitted April 18, 1961, to the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the United States House of Representatives.

2
. “Air Force Order on ‘Saucers’ Cited,”
New York Times
, February 28, 1960.

3
. Carey, Thomas J. and Donald R. Schmitt.
Witness to Roswell
. Revised and Expanded Edition, Career Press, 2009.

4
. Rowe, Frankie. Interview with the authors. International Roswell UFO Museum, July 2, 2010.

5
. Friedman, Stanton T.
Top Secret/Majic, Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government’s UFO Cover-up
. Marlowe and Company, 1996.

6
. See Menzel, Donald H.
Flying Saucers: Myth, Truth, History
. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953; with Lyle G. Boyd.
The World of Flying Saucers: A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space Age
. Doubleday, 1963; and with Ernest H. Taves.
The UFO Enigma: The Definitive Explanation of the UFO Phenomenon
. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977.

7
. Friedman,
Top Secret/Majic
, p. 30–31.

8
. Bernstein, Carl. “The CIA and the Media,”
Rolling Stone
, October 20, 1977.
www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
. See also Hansen, Terry.
The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up
. Xlibris, 2000.

9
. Stonor Saunders, Frances.
The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters
. The New Press, 2001.

10
. Winks, Robin.
Cloak & Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939–1961
. William Morrow, 1987. See also Hulnick, Arthur S. “CIA’s Relations with Academia: Symbiosis Not Psychosis” in
International Journal of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence
, V1, N4 1986, p. 41–50. See also Gibbs, David N. “Academics and Spies: The Silence that Roars.”
Los Angeles Times
, 28 January 2001.

11
. Klass, Philip J.
UFOs: Identified
. Random House, 1968;
UFOs Explained
. Random House, 1974;
UFOs: The Public Deceived
. Prometheus Books, 1983;
UFO Abductions: A Dangerous Game
. Prometheus Books, 1989;
The Real Roswell Crashed-Saucer Coverup
. Prometheus Books, 1997.

12
. Kean, Leslie.
UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record
. Crown, 2010.

13
. Cox, Billy, “Did Cronkite get ‘snookered’?”
Herald–Tribune
, July 21, 2009.

14
. Saunders, David R.
UFOs? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong
. World Pub. Co. 1969. p. 129, 194.

15
. Dolan, Richard M.
UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover–Up, 1941–1973
. Hampton Roads, 2002. p. 66.

16
. A history of these documents, and the debates generated by them, is contained in Dolan, Richard M.
UFOs and the National Security State, Volume Two: The Cover–Up Exposed, 1973–1991
. Keyhole Publishing Co., 2009.

17
.
UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?
An Independent Report on UFOs written by the French Association COMETA. This report details the results of a study by the Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense. This paper originally appeared in a special issue of the magazine
VSD
published in France in July 1999.

18
. 1997, U.S. Senate Document 105–2, “Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy.”

19
. Testimony before the House Appropriations Committee: Fiscal Year 2002 Defense Budget Request As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Hugh Shelton,, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC, Monday, July 16, 2001.
www.defense.gov/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=408

20
. Gilmore, Gerry J., “Zakheim Seeks To Corral, Reconcile ‘Lost’ Spending,” American Forces Press Service, Feb. 20, 2002,
www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43927
. See also “Statement of the Honorable Tina W. Jonas, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), Senate Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support,” November 18, 2004,
http://armed–services.senate.gov/statemnt/2004/November/Jonas%2011–18–04.pdf

21
. Sweetman, Bill. “In Search of the Pentagon’s Billion Dollar Hidden Budgets: How the US Keeps Its R&D Spending Under Wraps.”
Janes International Defence Reporter
, January 5, 2000.

22
. Priest, Dana and Arkin, William M. “Top Secret America. A hidden world, growing beyond control,” in 3 Parts.
Washington Post
, July 19–21, 2010.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top–secret–america