X Descending (27 page)

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”

—George Orwell (1984)

At the beginning of Part II I said that writing about this case can be frustrating because of the amount of material that is in one way or another tied to Paul Bennewitz’s experiences. In fairness, much of that material came from others who may have been actively spreading disinformation like a volley of flares dropped to distract and divert attention. The disinformation and misinformation, intentional or not, continues even to this day. As an example, not long ago, in a popular Internet forum, a well-known researcher familiar with the Kirtland AFB sightings wrote a quick synopsis of the Bennewitz case. He began by saying simply that Paul had recorded ‘frequencies’, and then followed with several comments about Paul having believed he was communicating with aliens. Anyone reading that, with nothing else to go on, might understandably dismiss the issue completely. The synopsis, quick and dismissive as it was, fosters the same disinformation that has been perpetuated for years. I think it is notable that a proclaimed expert on this phenomenon, someone widely seen, read, and heard, would mislead others, if only by omission. I am certain this man knows differently. A skewed presentation of the facts by someone with a semblance of authority can be as effective a bit of disinformation today as bogus documents and false leads were back in the 1980s.

This chapter looks at some of the topics and questions traceable to the Bennewitz case that still linger today. They may be familiar to some of you and unfamiliar to others, but consider them all in the context of the preceding chapters and the elaborate and contrived effort to mislead us all. Some of these subjects have taken on lives of their own, so it would not be an exaggeration to say the seeds of disinformation planted long ago have grown well. Anyone coming across the information without knowing the origin becomes a potential carrier.

MJ Twelve
and
Project Aquarius
are two topics that sparked a great deal of interest beginning in the early 1980’s. Both went on to become major topics of the last thirty years in Ufology; MJ Twelve in particular is still discussed fairly regularly in online forums. Regrettably, all the information in the world does not make for solid evidence, and over time it became clear that what at first looked like clues to bigger secrets, in reality, led nowhere. My reason for discussing them here is only to show how they originated from matters relating to Paul Bennewitz, and how they effectively drew attention away from the real evidence he had. But, along with these two topics are others that deserve a full accounting—an underground base at Dulce, Bill Moore’s involvement, and more.

Time is the enemy of justice unless we do something to keep the issues alive. With no one demanding a formal investigation into the events, the only remaining option may be to try and learn from what happened and keep searching for those who took part in keeping the truth from the rest of us. Perhaps by understanding how the disinformation was released and used to draw attention away from Paul’s initial evidence, we may come away with a clearer understanding of how significant his original films were. We may also discover how precarious our own positions can be.

A Word About Due Diligence

Before looking at some of the curious sub-plots that played out during the 1980s, there is an issue that I feel needs to be addressed. It is something that anyone with an interest in the phenomenon, and especially anyone serious about getting to the truth, needs to think very carefully about.
Any question of whether the government or military will act to suppress information about this phenomenon is moot after the case of Paul Bennewitz
. If the military, or the government, or some other group, is willing to go to this extreme to suppress the evidence, civilian researchers need to be less naïve about what they are up against.

In my years working with computer networks, often responsible for network security, I came to the sobering realization that there is no real security at all. Security is an ongoing process. For all the firewalls and intrusion detection systems, and with most people expecting threats to come from the outside, the biggest surprises often come from someone already inside the network—someone presumed trustworthy but in a position to have access to significant information.

With most UFO reports now referred to civilian organizations, how would agents of the government or military position themselves to hear of anything significant? Beyond purely technical means, it would be reasonable to expect that they would want sources inside such organizations, preferably someone in a position to manage or control information. I have had my suspicions about this, as I am sure many others have, and I have come across several individuals over the years that I am convinced were not what they seemed. Nevertheless, with only one or two primary reporting sites in the U.S., and only one major UFO organization remaining, there would be few better places to monitor incoming information, and bury what might be problematic.

Consider this example of how easy it can be to keep the membership of an organization, and by inference, the public, in the dark. In the early 1980s Tommy Blann and I were present at a meeting in which the local Dallas MUFON leadership were discussing their decision to separate from the national organization. The decision came about in large part after learning from the international director himself that the best cases MUFON received were never reported in the MUFON journal. The Dallas group was so shocked to hear him say it that they eventually questioned their own association with the overall organization. I never heard if they knew what his reasons were for keeping the best cases out of the MUFON Journal, but it was definitely a troubling discovery for the members in Dallas. If the members never heard of the best reports, and they were never published in the MUFON Journal, then what did happen to them—and why?

It would only be prudent for an intelligence or counterintelligence agency hoping to keep a lid on troublesome reports and potential whistleblowers to maintain connections within the major civilian organizations. For years, questions have remained about CIA connections to the leadership of the original NICAP (National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena), once the most respected civilian organization in the world. More recently, the Fund For UFO Research has also come under fire for connections to the CIA, principally through one of its founding members, Bruce Maccabee (coincidentally a former NICAP member). Maccabee, who worked for years with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, has reportedly admitted to giving several briefings to the CIA on aspects of the UFO phenomenon. Simply giving a briefing might not justify real concern, but in a conversation with Todd Zechel, a founder of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS), when Maccabee was asked directly if he worked for the CIA, he reportedly answered, “You might say that.”
⁶⁴
With an acknowledgement like that, could anyone not be concerned that the Fund For UFO Research may effectively be a funnel for information, via Maccabee, to the CIA? The question of where his loyalty may lie is troubling to say the least. How comfortable would the CIA be if they were to learn that one of their agents had been giving briefings to another agency with potentially conflicting interests? Though he is considered by many to be an expert in image analysis, Maccabee’s application of that expertise to validate ‘genuine’ UFO photographs has also raised questions of credibility at times. He received widespread criticism for his support of photographs in the infamous Gulf Breeze (Florida) case, a case now widely considered something of a fiasco by most serious researchers.

After Bill Moore’s public admission of his role in the Bennewitz affair (discussed more completely below), the entire UFO community seemed to fall in behind those who castigated him for taking part in an operation against Paul Bennewitz. I was as shocked as anyone that he had deceived Paul (not to mention some of his own friends) for what seemed to be his own self-interests. He claimed he had his reasons, and he did offer a plausible rationale for his actions, but it was a betrayal nonetheless, and certainly a tragic one for Paul Bennewitz. Now, years later, I believe there are reasons to wonder if Moore's role was much more calculated than anyone realized, even with his apparent confession. Still, knowledge of what Moore had done might have been used in a number of ways to further the cause of Ufology. The leadership of the major public organizations might have pressed for inquiries and demanded a full accounting of the military's involvement. But nothing happened. They had an opportunity to demonstrate the significance of the UFO phenomenon and expose a case of the Air Force working to undermine a civilian, but instead of grasping the opportunity, they did nothing. Why?

If this phenomenon is important enough that one or more intelligence agencies are involved,
whatever the reason
, then civilian researchers cannot afford to be naïve if they hope to get to the truth. The Bennewitz case may be the most widely known example in recent years, but there is no reason to assume it will be the last. Knowing that a counterintelligence operation was used to deceive the public, no one should be too surprised if it turns out that many of the major UFO-related topics from the 1980s and beyond were all part of the “body of lies” designed to mislead anyone who took an interest—and may ever take an interest—in what began with Paul Bennewitz.

The Origins of Dulce and Underground Bases

Stories of underground bases inhabited by alien races have been around for many, many years. In fact, back in the 1970s, one of my early articles was an exposé of the absurd evidence often presented to support “hollow earth” stories and other tales of subterranean bases. Nevertheless, the idea that underground or underwater sites on this planet could serve as staging areas for alien expeditions resurfaces from time to time. After all, if you are going to allow that alien visitors might be here…then why not underground bases? With no proof either way, but certainly no way to disprove it, the idea has held its intrigue. It was just this possibility that appears to have been exploited to mislead Paul Bennewitz, and now lives on in UFO lore.

As mentioned earlier, following numerous reports of cattle mutilations, in 1979, Paul developed an interest in the area of northeastern New Mexico near the town of Dulce. At years end however, his attention was diverted by the vehicles he filmed from his rooftop in Albuquerque. He spent the first part of 1980 trying to get the Air Force to take seriously what he had seen over the weapons storage area, and what he thought he had uncovered. But, over the next few months, he grew frustrated by their rather muted response to what he thought was a significant issue. As a result, by April he had begun contacting others and trying to generate more interest in what he had to tell. Regardless of anything that had happened near Dulce, he was now armed with convincing evidence of disk-shaped vehicles with apparently open access to a sensitive military and DOE installation…and the Air Force knew it.

Then, in May, something happened that suddenly changed his focus. He was introduced to a woman named Myrna Hansen, who claimed she was the victim of an alien abduction that had taken place somewhere in northern New Mexico. Somehow, through a string of contacts, she was led to Paul and ended up in his home. Eventually, with APRO’s help, well-known psychologist Dr. Leo Sprinkle came to Albuquerque and used regressive hypnosis to enhance her recollection of the abduction experience. Under hypnosis, as her story grew to include being taken to an underground facility or “base”, her description of where the abduction took place led Paul to think that it matched the area of the Archuleta Mesa. The same spot he had been so interested in only a few months before became, after Myrna’s hypnotic regression, the probable location of an underground alien base!

Is it purely coincidental that a woman with just this story to tell would end up in Paul's home? To my understanding, it was through contact with one of the law enforcement agencies in northern New Mexico that she was referred to Officer Gabe Valdez, the same State Police officer Paul had met in mid-1979. Valdez, knowing of Paul's interest in that area, referred her to Paul. As anyone might have guessed, at that point Paul brought her straight to Albuquerque where she reportedly spent some time in his home. On the surface it seems purely circumstantial, and perhaps it was, but the fact is that she appeared at the perfect time and with a story perfectly framed to bolster—and amplify—Paul's beliefs about aliens on the Archuleta Mesa. It is, in my opinion, a thought provoking coincidence, to say the least.