Our Aliens Are Better Than Your Aliens

News reports indicate renewed global efforts are underway to prosecute Nazi war criminals remaining at large. Some US-based organizations support the efforts.

Those not afflicted with conspiracy-phobia will be reminded of Operation Paperclip, a confirmed post-World War II US intelligence project in which Third Reich key personnel were targeted for recruitment. Select Nazi scientists were provided asylum in the States in exchange for their contributions to American intelligence interests. “Our Germans are better than your Germans,” went the Cold War era running joke between the CIA and KGB.

The New York Times published further details of such recruitment efforts and related issues in a 2010 article titled, Nazis Were Given 'Safe Haven' in U.S., Report Says. The article, written by Eric Lichtblau, provides key details of a 2006 US Justice Department 600-page report, The Office of Special Investigations: Striving for Accountability in the Aftermath of the Holocaust. The report, heavily redacted by the Justice Department prior to its release, was obtained and subsequently published in its entirety by the Times.

Further concerns might be raised by the fact US-based funding entities, including the Rockefeller Foundation, financially aided eugenic research conducted in pre-World War II Germany and elsewhere. This has long been accepted as fact among historians and as reported on George Mason University's History News Network, among any number of sources defined as credible by the professional research community.

Now, any self-respecting realist will find nothing surprising about world powers demonstrating double standards. Most of us are all too aware politics courts hypocrisy, so let us move along to further considerations of how such circumstances might be relevant to ufology.

Progeria and Genetic Testing

A couple years ago, a valued associate and good friend, Iza, known on line as stiver, brought Progeria and its implications to my attention. She contributed substantially to my understandings of the following information.

Progeria is a rare childhood genetic disorder, typically including an enlarged head and absence of hair, in which accelerated aging occurs. According to the Progeria Research Foundation, the disorder is due to genetic mutation. 




Dolly's taxidermied remains.

Iza studied other evolving genetic research, including cloning. She noted the curious similarities between symptoms of Progeria and certain clones, such as Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. Dolly developed arthritis and other disorders common to much older sheep, resulting in her premature death at the age of six years, only about half the life expectancy of the average sheep. Essentially, Dolly died of old age while still young, Iza noted, just like those stricken with Progeria.

If any doubts remain that intelligence officials would take serious interest in genetic research, consider a BBC report about cloned cattle. Scientists observed in six cloned cows what was literally termed reversed aging! The cows simply aged at a significantly slower than normal pace.

A small number of UFO and alien abduction researchers have considered the implications of Progeria and genetic research. Some of their resulting work is reasonably well conceived while some leaves more than a bit to be desired.

Nick Redfern tried to raise awareness of relevant possibilities. He wrote about Progeria and related circumstances in some of his books, as well as posted about it on UFO Updates List. Redfern wrote the List, “And I still find it interesting that I found files – forwarded to the Nuclear Energy for Propulsion of Aircraft people at Oak Ridge and the Biology Division at Oak Ridge, no less - in 1947 on radiation experiments undertaken that summer on people with Progeria.”

I find it interesting, too. I also find it interesting that those diagnosed with Progeria so closely resemble descriptions of supposed human-alien hybrid beings as described by alleged alien abductees. Let us explore such things and the potential ties to Oak Ridge, also known as Atomic City and as cited by Redfern, a bit further.

Covert Research

A 1977 article titled, Private Institutions Used in CIA Effort to Control Behavior and published by The New York Times, delved into mind control experiments perpetrated by the American intelligence community during Project MKULTRA. Among other noteworthy items, the article cited some 25 years of covert experiments conducted at colleges, medical institutions and research facilities, funded by nonprofit organizations acting as conduits for the Central Intelligence Agency.

During the 1990's the Clinton administration established the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. The committee was created to investigate allegations involuntary human research subjects were deceived and abused during radiation experiments, some of which were alleged to have been perpetrated by MKULTRA personnel. The committee ultimately concluded an estimated 11,000 people were treated negligently by the US government in the course of radiation experiments, some of which were fatal.

The advisory committee heard testimony, sometimes absolutely horrific in nature, from individuals claiming to be victims. One such self-described victim was Suzanne Starr, a woman who, among other nightmarish allegations, stated she was subjected to an induced pregnancy resulting in her baby boy being taken from her, presumably for further experimentation. One reasonable interpretation would be that a primary difference between testimonies narrated by Starr and those narrated by some possible alien abductees is that Starr blamed CIA operatives for her abuse rather than aliens, whatever that may or may not ultimately indicate.

It should be noted that certain MKULTRA victims, some of which were indeed conclusively verified to have been among those abused during the notorious operations conducted at Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal, claimed to have observed pathetically mutated individuals at the facility. The details and existence of such alleged mutated individuals cannot be confirmed and may of course indicate circumstances other than actuality in at least some instances. My point being there are demographics in addition to alien abductees that describe experiences similar to that of abductees, including allegations of extensive testing, including genetic, the circumstances of which have historical precedence and substantially more likelihood.

All things considered, if a claim of a stolen fetus or ominous encounter with a child having wispy hair, large eyes and an enlarged head were to ever be substantiated, could we sincerely look one another in the eye, with full knowledge of factual information such as cited in this post, and say space invaders were really the most likely explanation? Really?

Lyn Buchanan: Military Intel and 'Alien Abductee'

Lyn Buchanan is retired career military intelligence and a self-described alien abductee. He claimed to have experienced a psychokinetic event at the Intelligence Field Station in Augsburg, Germany, some six years before the Gulf Breeze Six brought attention to the base. I contacted him to learn more.

Summary

Sergeant Lyn Buchanan initially joined the Army as a young man and, according to the bio on his website, he became a computer expert, working on Nike guided missile systems. During a 12-year break in service, Buchanan apparently earned a BA in Psychology, a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Linguistics Psychology. He re-entered the Army in 1974 and became employed in military intelligence as a linguist.

Former home of the Gulf Breeze Six and their
701st Military Intelligence Brigade at the
US Intelligence Field Station in Augsburg, Germany.

Buchanan's long second stint of duty included serving four years at the US Intelligence Field Station in Augsburg, Germany, the same base where the Gulf Breeze Six went over the wall in 1990. It was in 1984 at Augsburg that Buchanan experienced what he described as a “psychokinetic” computer-related anomaly. As the story goes, the anomaly caught the attention of Major General Stubblebine himself to an extent the general oversaw the sergeant's transfer to a remote viewing unit located in Fort Meade, Maryland.

At that point, a lot depends on who you choose to believe as to what took place, as self-appointed movers and shakers of the remote viewing crowd often agree on very little other than the activity is of monumental importance. Other than that, many of them bicker and fail to agree on such basic aspects as how to correctly execute the activity, who is qualified to teach it or what it should even correctly be called.

As Buchanan's story goes, it was while he was employed with the remote viewing unit that he recovered memories of what he claims to believe was an alien abduction. The abduction event happened some 25 years prior, during the 1960's, according to Buchanan.

Sergeant Buchanan retired from the Army in 1992. He worked for a brief time with Major General Stubblebine, but the venture apparently did not work out. Buchanan continues to hold Stubblebine in the highest regards.

Buchanan eventually founded and continues to operate Problems>Solutions>Innovation, or P>S>I, of Alamogordo, New Mexico, where he provides training in his brand of controlled remote viewing and related services. Much about remote viewing operations was declassified in 1995, paving the way for former participants to speak publicly about select subject matter while launching private companies that market remote viewing products and services.

Details

I contacted Sergeant Buchanan to inquire about the many interesting aspects of his case. I appreciate his willingness to interact with me and field my questions. Whatever we may choose to think about his statements, I appreciate he provided the statements. I initially asked about the computer incident in Augsburg.



Sergeant Lyn Buchanan

“Well, it wasn't at all like the scene in 'The Men Who Stare At Goats' movie,” he replied.

“I had spent a little over two months writing a program,” Buchanan continued, “which would tie together the work of the 12 different countries who used the field station. That way, they could share intelligence and not duplicate each other's work. There was another sergeant who had wanted the programming job, but I got it instead. When it came time to demo the program, the highest brass from each of the 12 countries were in the room. I gave my intro and then turned to the mainframe computer terminal and hit the enter key. The screen went dead and everyone started laughing. I turned and saw the other sergeant standing at the door. He pointed his finger at the computer, then at me, and mouthed, 'Gotcha!!.' I got flaming angry. I've had PK (psychokinetic) ability since I was about 12 years old, and I knew what happened when I get angry at someone. I quickly turned back to the computer, and the computers all over the station burned out.”

This, as legend has it, contributed to Major General Stubblebine developing a specific interest in the sergeant and sending him to Fort Meade, Maryland. Buchanan further described, “I was a much needed replacement for Joe McMoneagle, so they were glad to have me. However, they also knew that I was there out of default. General Stubblebine had wanted to use me to start a military unit that could destroy enemy computers - then later learn how to simply control the data and programming within them. When Congress decided that that was too much like mind control, they wouldn't fund it, so I basically had no assignment to go to. So, General Stubblebine put me into the CRV (controlled remote viewing) unit, instead.”

It was during his time in the CRV unit that Buchanan claimed to have recovered memories of an alien abduction. He described himself as having long suffered from nagging feelings he was forgetting something, claiming to repeatedly check his house for forgotten items prior to leaving. “Over the following years (after the abduction),” he explained, “it became chronic, and I couldn't leave the house without going back to check the gas, the lights, the locks, etc. One Sunday, about 25 years after that, my wife and I were on our way to church, and I had gone back into the house 5-6 times to check on things. She chided me, 'Did you check the basement? Did you check the lights? Did you check the back yard?' The minute she said 'back yard,' it all came flooding back to me. It was overwhelming. That's when the event and the details of what happened during my abduction came flooding back to me."

Describing the abduction, Buchanan stated, “When I was a student minister in East Texas, back in the '60s, I was moving from one parsonage to another (Methodist ministers move from church assignment to church assignment every few years or so). My family had already moved to the new parsonage, and I was cleaning out the old one, getting it ready for the incoming minister. It was late at night and I was tired, so I put a pallet down on the floor and laid down to take a nap before driving to the new house. The parsonage was WAY out in the country, about a half mile from the nearest road, so it was totally isolated. About that time, I heard something land in the back yard. I tried to get up to see what it was, but was frozen. I thought that it could be a 'flying saucer,' and decided that I could go out back and take a picture of the ground the next morning to prove it. But right then, I couldn't move. Then, I heard some 'people' coming around the house to the front. The next thing I knew, it was morning and I was wandering around the house in a total daze. When I finally came to my senses, I picked up the pallet, threw it into the UHaul and drove away. From that time on, I kept having the feeling that I had forgotten something.”

What does Buchanan think was most important about the event?

“It happened. There are other things that came from remembering the event and from the events that followed after I remembered, but those things are not open for the public, yet.”

Buchanan explained that he discussed the memories to various extents with the remote viewing unit, going as far as asking them to remotely observe the occurrence. He claimed “their findings confirmed it.” He also claimed one of the unit members “told on” him to "the powers that be." This, Buchanan suggested, resulted in formal questioning. “The following week,” he continued, “I was approached by 'the men in black' (who are just interrogators, not aliens), and I learned something from them that confirmed that it was true. About a year later, I got further and more complete confirmation.”

When asked if there was anything else in particular he thought we should know, Buchanan had quite a bit to offer. He wrote that his general attitude on aliens is 'they are there, but so what?'. He added, “As a result of my experience and what came from that first interrogation, I've been exposed to a lot more ET-related material and incidents, most of which nobody knows about, and probably never will. But again... so what?”

Buchanan claimed he was once commissioned to compose a paper to determine possible relationships between psychic ability and aliens, and he suggested this might be of interest to readers. After what he termed “a fairly long study of unsolved cases of abductions, sightings, events, etc.,” as well as “a lot of things that didn't make it into the 'Blue Book Report,'” he claimed to have come to believe there are multiple kinds of aliens, possessing various extents of psychic abilities and executing a variety of agendas, visiting earth. Conceding it was conjecture, Buchanan stated he believed a key point was that humans have little psychic ability, yet a lot of psychic range (across planets or even the universe), while some aliens have a lot of psychic ability, but very little range (they must be in the immediate vicinity of a person to psychically manipulate them).

Concerns

I asked Sergeant Buchanan what he would say to those who might ask why he thinks he has been provided confirmation and “further and more complete information,” as he stated, when individuals such as Colonel John Alexander continue to claim they can find no such evidence. I asked if Buchanan suggested we should doubt Alexander's sincerity, consider him 'out of the loop,' or some other possibility.

“There are two key (terms) in your question,” Buchanan cryptically replied, "'claim' and 'some other possibility.'"

Responding to what he would say to individuals who might question why we should believe those who allegedly provide him information, Buchanan stated he probably would not answer because “the information is mostly still classified.” He added, however, that “an accidental exposure of information” occurred during one circumstance, and he claimed to later have been provided “physical proof.”

"There are a lot of questions I can't or won't answer,” Buchanan concluded, “and a lot of accusations that I won't be able to defend, simply because of the situations, agreements, and promises I have made. I am a VERY strong supporter of the fact that there are many things which should remain secret. And in spite of what the tabloid says, nowhere in the Constitution or any law does it state that 'the people have a right to know.' But frankly, I would be disappointed in people if they didn't question just about everything they hear. There probably won't be a lot of proof available to the public in our lifetimes, but that doesn't mean that people shouldn't continue to demand it. If you don't continue to demand it, you'll never get it. The people may not have the right to know, but there's a lot of it that, in my opinion, they have the need to know.”

Bottom Line

I want to emphasize my appreciation for Sergeant Buchanan's willingness to address my questions. He is prepared to have his story and statements scrutinized, and that traditionally bodes well. Buchanan wisely goes as far as to empathize with those who might, at most, be no more than willing to suspend judgment pending verifiable proof of his claims.

I think the story here is that the story even exists. I leave it up to readers to form their own perspectives but, in my opinion, the bottom line is that members of the military intelligence community indeed took ongoing interests in ufology, or at least they keep talking about it, and that in itself is a potentially key piece of the puzzle. In many circumstances we simply have no current means of knowing which ones of them are sincere, dishonest, manipulated or even just doing their jobs as instructed. Until such a time as we do know, we are simply left to debate and speculate, and such is the stuff of exercises in futility.

The goings ons in Augsburg during the 1980's and into 1990 should keep researchers busy for quite some time. The events surrounding Project STAR GATE additionally have enough implications and possibilities to keep curious researchers reading Gary Bekkum for generations to come.

Yet the situation will remain that we cannot form a legitimate conclusion until verifiable data allows, all of which brings us back to the previously identified pink elephant in the room of ufology: We cannot thoroughly and accurately assess UFO-related circumstances until we know the extent the intelligence community was involved. We cannot compose an accurate program for the play until we know who deserves primary credit for the production.

Here, in the cases of Sergeant Lyn Buchanan and Colonel John Alexander, we have two men who literally served in the same command of Major General Bert Stubblebine and his paranormal-related projects, yet the two provided us virtually completely conflicting information. One, Buchanan, claimed to have spent a virtual career interacting with the likes of men in black and various insiders who were not only well aware of an alien presence, but provided him confirmation. Contrastingly, Colonel Alexander claimed to have searched high and low for such evidence, ultimately claiming no such evidence exists and that no one is even so much as charged with obtaining and protecting it. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, I write that perhaps we should introduce Buchanan and Alexander....

My exploration of the labyrinth of UFO Land and my resulting study of the intelligence community sometimes bring to mind the words of Heinrich Heine, a 19th century writer and German expatriate. He is credited with the statement, “Wild, dark times are rumbling toward us, and the prophet who wishes to write a new apocalypse will have to invent entirely new beasts, and beasts so terrible that the ancient animal symbols of St. John will seem like cooing doves and cupids in comparison.”

Will You Ask the Right Questions When the Time Comes?

David Jacobs, PhD, will be a guest speaker tonight, Tuesday, November 15, at MUFON Los Angeles. This has bloggers such as Jeremy Vaeni and Regan Lee outraged the retired historian continues to be taken seriously in any capacity whatsoever of abduction research, going as far as suggesting a boycott of MUFON.

Considering the well documented chain of events that took place between Jacobs and his former research subject Emma Woods, the outrage is quite understandable. For further details about his confirmed abuse and extremely questionable actions that took place, see UFO Magazine, Paratopia and Emma's website, among any number of such places.

A Word About the Mutual UFO Network

We should all take notice of a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, claiming to be dedicated to the scientific study of UFOs, that repeatedly conducts activities that directly contradict scientific methods and critical thinking. MUFON has a direct responsibility to present the public with scientific and credible information, at least according to its mission statement, yet repeatedly and blatantly shirks such responsibility. The shirking of responsibility is demonstrated in Filer's foolish files, any given symposium speaker line up and, most recently, providing Jacobs a platform to pedal his unsubstantiated and grossly premature conclusions.

Certain MUFON leaders making a laughing stock of the scientific process and contradicting objective investigation is nothing new to the ufology landscape, whatever the reasons may ultimately be for such occurrences. Such occurrences leave each of us within the UFO community a choice, however; a choice that challenges us to inventory our own qualities, and decide our own extents of integrity, objectivity and sincere desire to know the truth.

Dr. Tyler Kokjohn

Dr. Tyler Kokjohn is a professor of microbiology and author of the article, Tainted, Toxic and Taboo: A Scientist's Assessment of Alien Abduction Research. He is an active participant in Project Core, an initiative designed to produce accurate and objective data about reported paranormal experiences, and he recently created the short film clip, Alien Abductions in Black and White, which I will provide below.

Dr. Kokjohn is well experienced and professionally qualified to provide relevant questions as contained within the video. He challenges us, the UFO community, to demand accountability of our leaders and speakers.

I agree with his implications that if a self-described researcher desires to present guesses or preferred beliefs, correctly identifying them as such, it is simply up to the audience as to whether or not they might choose to attend and eventually agree. However, if a researcher asserts himself as an authority on a topic such as alleged alien abductions, and attempts to convince an audience that he has conclusive evidence to support his extraordinary claims, the issue arguably becomes if the audience members have the integrity and courage to request professional authentication for the claims.

As Dr. Kokjohn so aptly points out in the video, it is common practice within the professional research community to openly share information such as research methodology and personnel. Disclosing such details as data gathering methods, data analysis and identification of facilities involved are also simply par for the course in professional research protocol. It is entirely reasonable to request such information from those claiming to conduct research, much less claiming to be in a position to provide fantastic conclusions.

Do we have the integrity and courage to hold those accountable for such information that try to sell us their unsupported and premature conclusions? We must each make that choice.

I have no particular desire to suggest people boycott MUFON or the outlandish 'researchers' the corporation so commonly supports. I do have a desire, however, to inspire you to make your own choice about what you will do when the time comes to decide if you will ask the right questions. What you choose to do is up to you, and it has a lot to do with whether or not you sincerely want the truth.

The Leah Haley Case: The Pink Elephant and a Sample of Comments

As we continue to consider the Leah Haley Case, her perspectives and the overall implications of it all, a significant issue emerges that should be of interest to members of the UFO community far and wide. Whether you are an experiencer of the apparent paranormal, had a UFO sighting, a researcher, a casually interested party or any other such individual that spends time learning about the likes of Haley, Woods, Redfern and company, a certain point of consideration arises. This certain point is a part of the Haley Case, but is by no means exclusive to it.

Whether or not we want to collectively accept and discuss it, the fact will remain that we will never be able to accurately assess the significance of events such as reported UFO sightings and alleged alien abductions until we know the entire extent the intelligence community is involved in ufology. To avoid considerations of the evolution of human technology and covert psychological operations, while investigating and contemplating reports of UFO-related events, is comparable to omitting the influence of the Catholic Church from considerations of the 17^th century witchcraft phobia.

At the very least, we should give serious consideration to the extent the intelligence community manipulated public perception while authoring UFO and abduction lore. Intelligence interests have been well documented and demonstrated in circumstances such as the Maury Island fiasco and the supposed contactees of the 1950's.

I am not necessarily suggesting covert operations account for all reports of UFO-related activity. Neither am I so much as remotely implying all paranormal events can currently be explained. A marvel of science is that it continues to expand and discover.

However, as long as we largely refuse to regularly address the Big Brother pink elephant in the room of ufology, truth and objectivity will continue to suffer. This reaches far beyond Leah Haley or any other given case.

We have been duped on a mass scale. Such distortion of truth has not only been the multiple-decades work of the intelligence community, but also the doings of an increasingly exposed group of frauds, unforgivably masquerading as trustworthy researchers. Were it not for such ongoing and deceptive influence, an entirely different prevailing perspective of paranormal phenomena and unexplained aerial phenomena would have most certainly developed. Most certainly.

Comments

A number of people chose to voice their opinions thus far about the Leah Haley Case and related circumstances. A certain percentage of such opinions have been hostile and caustic, but such instances are largely the same handful of people repeating their views in some way or another.

Contrastingly, a much larger group of people have expressed intelligent and thoughtful support of Leah's willingness to voice her perspectives, as well as my efforts, regardless of what their personal opinions and perspectives might be. The supportive majority is simply not as prolific as the often belligerent and irrational minority.

The following comments are a sampling taken from emails, forums, blogs and various websites since I began writing about the Leah Haley Case:

It’s good that you are having some supportive and thoughtful input, it is a subject that, as you know, attracts some very polarized views. I think the key is more and more research…

Well, this is getting a bit redundant here, but - Thank You Jack! I'm very interested to read the rest of this series.

To say that alien abductions are the result of mind control experiences is hurtful to me personally as someone who has suffered with having to cope with alien abductions all of my life. This idiotic, childish statement negates all that I have been through.

I've been interested in Leah Haley's experiences for years, and her recent statements about abductions have been provocative, and caused some controversy. But then, it seems to me, her announcement was dropped by most who say they're interested in what goes on in UFO Land. I find that very odd. I have no idea if Haley is right, on to something, or what, but it's worth some serious perusal. Thankfully, Jack Brewer is keeping the story alive.

Thank you for this very interesting post, Jack. It is quite scary to think of the implications.

If she now believes some sort of mind control or manipulation has occurred then it's something to look into. The reason being is that mind control/manipulation is a scientific fact having been used by military, criminals, advertising and just about everyone to some degree or another...

The technologies involved haven't been scientifically studied except over the past 100 years and the possibility that some people have been manipulated into thinking they've been abducted is just as much fair game as any. This is a powerful area of research and looking into the subject matter is astounding.

Okay I read some of Leah Haley and this is all the time I'm going to waste on people who believe UFOs and abductions are a CIA/Military conspiracy... If you could figure out it was all smoke and mirrors, “disinformation” sitting on your ass behind a computer, writing clever drivel to your blog, wouldn't the other side see the same thing as well?


I think the discussion provides credible information that such activities have played a role. It would seem that a variety of factors are probably causative in the perception of an alien abduction.  

First, I would like to state when I worked at UCLA in the Department of Human Subject Protection I began researching the subject of mind control. I was, after all, working at one of the institutions where MK-Ultra programs were designed, created and implemented. After years of investigative research, which included using the Biomed Library where I could read the same papers and books the doctors and staff had read, I decided to make an appeal to the National Institute of Health to call a halt to still on-going mind control projects. Leah Haley was one of the first to send me her story and request to the NIH to stop the projects. Therefore, I have to guess that Leah was contemplating, or staying open-minded, as to just what her experiences involved.

You are an interesting person and are most likely not the person you present your self as... I think that you tend more to hide things than to develop them to the logical conclusion... I think that you may work for a group designed to cloud things rather than shed light on them... I have the truth in my hand

Leah is a friend and a very brave woman...always has been with a sound mind on her shoulders. It took a lot of courage to say what needed to be said. I do hope legislature does stop illegal human experimentation...it is so widespread and people do not even see it. I am proud of her for her remarks in the interview...

As awful as the implications are, what you're proposing makes much more sense than alien abduction. I could never buy the premise in the first place, and I'm no stranger to seemingly paranormal events. But I've always felt the answers to this phenomenon would come from the experiencers themselves. More and more mention the human presence within experiences and I don't think that is something one can ignore.

Keep up the good work, Jack! Looking forward to more. Fascinating and long overdue.

Wow, she finally did it. At our local UFO Expo years ago, I spoke to her about what I'd learned about mind control experimentation and how it was changing my own opinion of what had happened to me during my missing time experiences... Ever since then, I've waited for her to go public, because she's always struck me as a very honest woman. I'm so glad that she's made what must have been an extremely difficult decision, given her high profile in the abductee community...

And it will be interesting to see how her change of heart will be received in the abductee community and how the gurus will spin it--maybe by attacking her character or impugning her sanity. My guess is that most abductees will either ignore it or explain it away somehow in order to keep their belief systems intact... I've lost much-loved friends over their deep-seated need to not look behind the curtain. I have a lot of compassion for them, but I hope that Ms. Haley's statement is the thing that wakens them from their long alien dream.

I encourage further discussion of the Leah Haley Case and its implications.

The Leah Haley Case: The Intelligence Community

This is one in a series of posts on the Leah Haley Case.

Exploration of the Leah Haley Case and the fateful weekend of July 6, 1990, leads to Gulf Breeze, Florida. In order to more completely grasp the impact the Gulf Breeze supposed flap had upon ufology and subsequently Haley, let us first consider the manners the intelligence community asserted itself into ufology and Gulf Breeze. 

The Gulf Breeze Six

There may very well not be a more curious chain of events within ufology and abduction lore than the story of the Gulf Breeze Six – and that's sayin' something. Writer/researcher Philip Coppens has a well presented summary of the saga in which quality references and supporting documents are provided.

In early July, 1990, Specialist Vance Davis and five more National Security Agency intelligence analysts, consisting of four men and one woman, went AWOL. As the story goes, they were under the direction of aliens and the Virgin Mary, armed with supposedly divine instructions to save the world from the anti-Christ and certain ruin. The GB6 abandoned their posts in West Germany, at what was at the time the largest NSA base in the world outside the States. The six mysterious deserters then somehow evaded arrest while flying to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and purchased a van they drove to Gulf Breeze, Florida.

They claimed to have experienced direct interactions with extraterrestrials and religious icons. They additionally claimed to have regularly communicated with such entities via a Ouija board. The GB6 seemed to have prophesied, studied their claimed paranormal experiences in depth and left long, detailed notes behind that described their claimed beliefs of the impending end of the world and their intentions to save it.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Vivian Johnson, one of the contacts of the GB6 who resided in Tennessee and assisted them in purchasing the van, stated it was “supposed to be Rapture time.” Johnson further stated that the six led her to believe they were on their way to greet an alien spacecraft on the shores of Gulf Breeze.

The apparent deserters were eventually taken into custody by local law enforcement officers in Gulf Breeze on July 14 and July 15, 1990. They were, for whatever reasons, curiously near the site of the eventful MUFON 1990 International UFO Symposium described in my previous post, The Leah Haley Case: Life-Changing Saucers and a Fateful Weekend. The arrests created numerous questions related to why military or federal authorities did not apprehend them, particularly considering their cross continental journey took them through international airports.

The maximum possible punishment for their actions, according to the Chicago Tribune, included dishonorable discharge and three years of confinement. A judgment was handed down three weeks following the arrests that the GB6 would be discharged with full honors. You read that right: discharged with full honors.

The incredible case caught the attention of VIPs, however, including Senator Bob Dole and General Colin Powell, resulting in deliberations that revised the initial ruling. The GB6 were subsequently reduced to the lowest rank and docked a half-month of pay.

By all interpretations, the circumstance was a personnel catastrophe and security compromise of extreme proportion. However, the following year, 1991, the 701^st Military Intelligence Brigade was awarded the prestigious Director of the National Security Agency's Travis Trophy. The unit was recognized as having made the most significant contribution in signals intelligence in the entire nation, second to none.

We will probably never know exactly what happened to the Gulf Breeze Six. Books have been written and interviews have been granted, but we will likely never conclusively know what they each honestly believed. It is doubtful we will ever learn the extents some or all of them may have been manipulated, whether or not any of them may have been involuntary research subjects, or if the entire story served as some kind of cover for psychological operations of which some or all of them may have been well aware.

I do not claim to have the answers to the implied questions. In order to continue exploring such possibilities, and how they may relate to Leah Haley, we might take a closer look at the intelligence community.

I am not accusing any officers or officials of any wrong doing. I only wish to accomplish presenting a reasonable argument that further research is justified into the likelihood that phenomena such as formerly reported by Haley may in some circumstances be attributable to quite human-instigated events.

Major General Albert “Bert” N. Stubblebine III

MG Stubblebine was prominently featured in Jon Ronson's, The Men Who Stare at Goats, a book about the Army's attempts to explore and ultimately use the paranormal to create weapons and related military applications. Stubblebine graduated from West Point in 1952, a time that we of course now know the intelligence community to have been extremely dedicated to perfecting mind control techniques, and the man went on to an accomplished career in military intelligence.

Among other points of interest, Stubblebine was largely credited with initially developing the technique of remote viewing. He was an integral part of the CIA-funded Project STAR GATE, an initiative that explored such psychic phenomena as remote viewing and overlapped with mind control operations.

Stubblebine extensively delved into psychological operations, including neuro-linguistic programming, a controversial activity that has been used as a subliminal persuasion tool and continues to incite debate. He pursued such lines of research on behalf of military intelligence interests and with his long-time associate, Colonel John B. Alexander.

Stubblebine retired in 1984 as commanding general of the US Army Intelligence and Security Command. He formerly led the Electronics Research and Development Command. Stubblebine was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, largely due to having been credited with completely restructuring the intelligence architecture of the entire US Army.

He is married to Dr. Rima Laibow, a ufologist, proponent of the use of hypnosis as a memory retrieval tool for self-described alien abductees, and who was lecturing at the MUFON symposium during the fateful weekend of July 6, 1990. The command of MG Stubblebine formerly included responsibility for the 701^st Military Intelligence Brigade, which was the unit of the Gulf Breeze Six. Vance Davis claimed during a Coast to Coast interview to have directly spoken with Stubblebine on multiple occasions prior to Davis going AWOL. The two were apparently acquainted, at the least.

Colonel John B. Alexander

According to Jim Harold and Colonel John Alexander on The Paranormal Podcast, Alexander gave his first presentation on flying saucers in 1947 and joined the Army in 1956. He served extensively throughout Southeast Asia as a Green Beret during the Vietnam War. His impressive career in military intelligence included acting as a consultant to the CIA and Washington officials.

“Mr. Non-Lethal,” as Alexander came to be known due to his lobbying on behalf of research and development of non-lethal weapons, studied psychic phenomena in professional capacities and at length with MG Stubblebine. While earning the status of a renowned non-lethal weapons expert, Alexander was simultaneously delving extensively into the UFO community, including sitting on a Robert Bigelow/NIDS advisory board.

The Bigelow camp was the driving force behind the Carpenter Affair. The Affair took place when mental health counselor, MUFON alien abduction researcher and hypnotist John Carpenter was persuaded to sell Bigelow the case files of 140 clients, including Leah Haley, without the knowledge or consent of the clients.

Alexander's work became a point of interest to investigative journalist Sharon Weinberger, author of the book, Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the Pentagon's Scientific Underworld. She wrote an article titled, Mind Games, published by The Washington Post in 2007, presenting certain accusations of mind control as well as an interview with Alexander. Weinberger wrote:

...John Alexander, one of the people whom Harlan Girard holds personally responsible for the voices in his head, is at a Chili's restaurant in Crystal City explaining over a Philly cheese steak and fries why the United States needs mind-control weapons.

A former Green Beret who served in Vietnam, Alexander went on to a number of national security jobs, and rubbed shoulders with prominent military and political leaders. Long known for taking an interest in exotic weapons, his 1980 article, "The New Mental Battlefield," published in the Army journal Military Review, is cited by self-described victims as proof of his complicity in mind control. Now retired from the government and living in Las Vegas, Alexander continues to advise the military. He is in the Washington area that day for an official meeting.

Beneath a shock of white hair is the mind of a self-styled military thinker. Alexander belongs to a particular set of Pentagon advisers who consider themselves defense intellectuals, focusing on big-picture issues, future threats and new capabilities. Alexander's career led him from work on sticky foam that would stop an enemy in his or her tracks to dalliances in paranormal studies and psychics, which he still defends as operationally useful.

In an earlier phone conversation, Alexander said that in the 1990s, when he took part in briefings at the CIA, there was never any talk of "mind control, or mind-altering drugs or technologies, or anything like that."

According to Alexander, the military and intelligence agencies were still scared by the excesses of MK-ULTRA, the infamous CIA program that involved, in part, slipping LSD to unsuspecting victims. "Until recently, anything that smacked of [mind control] was extremely dangerous" because Congress would simply take the money away, he said.

Alexander acknowledged that "there were some abuses that took place," but added that, on the whole, "I would argue we threw the baby out with the bath water."

But September 11, 2001, changed the mood in Washington, and some in the national security community are again expressing interest in mind control, particularly a younger generation of officials who weren't around for MK-ULTRA. "It's interesting, that it's coming back," Alexander observed.

While Alexander scoffs at the notion that he is somehow part of an elaborate plot to control people's minds, he acknowledges support for learning how to tap into a potential enemy's brain. He gives as an example the possible use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, for lie detection.

[...] 

Alexander also is intrigued by the possibility of using electronic means to modify behavior. The dilemma of the war on terrorism, he notes, is that it never ends. So what do you do with enemies, such as those at Guantanamo: keep them there forever? That's impractical. Behavior modification could be an alternative, he says.

"Maybe I can fix you, or electronically neuter you, so it's safe to release you into society, so you won't come back and kill me," Alexander says. It's only a matter of time before technology allows that scenario to come true, he continues. "We're now getting to where we can do that." He pauses for a moment to take a bite of his sandwich. "Where does that fall in the ethics spectrum? That's a really tough question."

When Alexander encounters a query he doesn't want to answer, such as one about the ethics of mind control, he smiles and raises his hands level to his chest, as if balancing two imaginary weights. In one hand is mind control and the sanctity of free thought -- and in the other hand, a tad higher -- is the war on terrorism.

Weinberger began Mind Games with the opening line, “If Harlan Girard is crazy, he doesn't act the part.” In spite of such observations, Alexander has long asserted mental illness as virtually the sole explanation for why some people report themselves to be victims of mind control and, more specifically, directly name him as their abuser in some cases.

Alexander is most certainly correct some of the time, as the mental health community indeed recognizes belief of being harassed by covert government agencies as a symptom of certain mental disorders. I present for consideration, however, that Alexander's ongoing suggestions that all claims be dismissed as those of the delusional does not adhere to neither rationality nor critical thinking.

This is the case because we conclusively know such involuntary human research subjects exist. It is therefore not reasonable to suppose all who claim to be suffering from such trauma are incorrect. It is a contradiction in logic.

Alexander further suggested during a relatively recent podcast interview that all members of the Gulf Breeze Six are crazy. I take issue with such an assertion for no less than two reasons:

One, I find it very difficult to accept they all coincidentally took leave of their senses at the same time - at least not unless a specific stimulus caused it. While a solid argument can certainly be made that a disturbed individual may be extremely talented in the art of persuasion, hypothetically leading others into the land of comets and Kool-Aid, such an argument nonetheless takes us to...

Two, I simply cannot accept without question how their collective behavior could have snowballed and escaped evaluation within a high profile National Security Agency facility. After all, Major General Stubblebine himself seems to have known then-Specialist Davis, and these were not your garden variety Army deserters. They were military intelligence analysts who claimed contact with aliens and divine entities on an NSA base. This, in itself, is absolutely extraordinary.

The possibilities should motivate ambitious researchers for years to come: non-lethal weapons testing, mind control, spy games, and considerations that such operations spiraled out of control. The implications are nearly as broad as interesting.

In the end, I think we must consider the significance of how the Gulf Breeze Six and their superiors were in the business of paying attention, particularly to potential security breeches and weak links in the chain. Any way we might choose to look at it, I cannot accept without question how such personnel could have been spending their time playing with a Ouija board and narrating stories of alien visitations without the NSA taking significant responsibility for the situation.

Major General Stubblebine and Colonel Alexander were exemplary soldiers, regardless of their involvement in controversial operations, and they were apparently ahead of their time. They were creative thinkers, at least as would be described within a military world which does not traditionally produce or reward 'idea men.' They each gave their country what it asked of them - whatever, exactly, it may have been that was asked. It is unfortunate we will never know the entire extent the Stubblebine-Alexander generation of intelligence officers shaped our global culture. Neither will we ever know the extents we might approve or disapprove of their activities, because we will simply never fully know what they did.

Future Topics

In order to more thoroughly grasp the potential significance to Leah Haley of the events that emerged from July of 1990, we might consider how her life unfolded thereafter. Those were eventful times in UFO Land. About the same time the Gulf Breeze Six were reportedly perceiving themselves to have been developing a relationship with the Blessed Virgin in June, 1990, a hand-held model of a UFO, bearing a striking resemblance to alleged craft photographed by Gulf Breeze front man Ed Walters, was found in the attic of Walters' former home. Meanwhile, the UFO community was continuing to flock to Gulf Breeze and greater Pensacola. Haley, too, would eventually become a part of the incredible saga of Gulf Breeze, but not before contacting Budd Hopkins.

Haley contacted Hopkins shortly after the weekend of July 6, 1990, when she had visited the home of her parents in Alabama and discussed her childhood UFO sighting. Hopkins referred her to mental health counselor turned hypnotist and case file salesman John Carpenter, who hypnotized Leah throughout 1991. She made her first trip to Gulf Breeze by 1992, leading to a series of interesting and bizarre interactions with a wide variety of people.

I am suggesting that further research is well justified into the likelihood the Gulf Breeze UFO craze involved planned and orchestrated psychological operations. I am further suggesting the members of the UFO community Leah came to know may have been involved, either knowingly or inadvertently, to various extents in such ops. I present for reasonable consideration that if such circumstances are in fact the case, Leah Haley, as well as other Gulf Breeze researchers and self-described experiencers, may have become pawns. They may have become unwitting participants in a game they never even suspected was taking place until they were deeply involved, and of which a majority of them remain unaware or silent, at least publicly.

The Leah Haley Case: Life-Changing Saucers and a Fateful Weekend

This is one in a series of posts on the Leah Haley Case.

The weekend of July 6, 1990, would forever change the life of Leah Haley. It was during that fateful weekend that she participated in a conversation with her mom and brother in which the three revisited a UFO sighting from many years prior. The sighting was discussed, unanswered questions were considered and a chain of events continued to unfold that was first set in motion many years earlier when Leah was a child.

Personal Paradigm-Shifts

Those who have not personally experienced the manner a UFO sighting can alter life and perspectives may find the occurrence difficult to understand. For whatever reasons, dramatic sightings may effect individuals quite profoundly, eventually causing them to become completely immersed in the UFO phenomenon and its sub-culture. In select circumstances, as was the case with Leah Haley, the original sighting may occur when the witness is a child and is not considered at length until well into adulthood.

A gradual, yet escalating and eventually quite profound, shift in perspectives may occur. The now-adult witness may find them self re-evaluating the childhood sighting, asking family members related questions, and undertaking extensive self-examination and introspection in efforts to clarify exactly what took place. It is not uncommon that, while they hope each new initiative will reap conclusions and finality, they actually become more deeply involved in the unfolding mystery, and more committed to its pursuit, with each progressive leg of their investigative journey.

The potential profound shifts in values and perspectives can simply not be overemphasized. It can be ironic, rewarding and contrastingly tragic that the witness may become totally absorbed in investigating their sighting and the related circumstances. One attempt to gather information (and one resulting compromise of previously held priorities) at a time, the witness may become virtually completely transformed, for both better and worse.

With each passing step, the witness may choose to continue because they have already given such effort and invested such resources in the previous steps, and it is only at some point well into the journey they may acknowledge it may have been wiser to have never undertaken the quest. It is many a transformed truth seeker, however, that by that point in time, develops the realization life has forever changed. They realize that whether or not they would have made the same choices in hindsight, the choices have now been made and there is no going back. Their previous lifestyle, priorities and loved ones may become but memories.

To thoroughly understand such dynamics provides insight into some of the lives and thoughts of those who experience UFO sightings as children. In this particular context, it might provide a bit more accurate perspective of how a girl, who saw some saucers in the sky, became Leah Ann Haley.

We may objectify and pontificate about the people and witnesses of ufology, but that does not change the fact that their lives were a gradual progression to their current conditions. Leah Haley did not set out on an intentional career path to become labeled a crazy mind control lady. It was after one choice at a time and one event at a time, including a divorce and severed relationships with various friends and loved ones, she became who we know her as today. I can well understand how and why, at this stage of her journey, she makes the choices she makes.

I hope my interest in her case and my empathy for her perspectives gives her at least some small feelings of vindication, acceptance and accomplishment. Regardless of what ultimate conclusions may lie ahead of those who boldly, and perhaps sometimes foolishly, attempt to pull the sword of truth from the stone of ufology, I support Leah's efforts and integrity.

I do not claim to conclusively know extensively what happened to Leah Haley. Neither do I claim to have conclusive evidence that human-instigated activities and/or research projects are to blame for some reports of alien abduction; I simply believe a reasonable and competent argument can be made that further research is justified into the possibility.

Following is more of the Leah Haley Case as I understand it.

The Childhood Sighting

It was during the Fourth of July week of 1990, as documented in her books, that the life of Leah Haley seems to have taken a sharp turn into UFO Land. Haley's children were at camp when she traveled to the home of her parents in rural Alabama to visit with family. Her childhood UFO sighting was subsequently discussed.

It seems that one afternoon while Leah was a girl living with her family outside Birmingham, Alabama, multiple disk-shaped craft were witnessed by Leah, her brother and a neighbor. The event included now-fragmented memories that hint at non-ordinary states of consciousness, potentially the results of any number of possible circumstances or combinations thereof.

Interestingly, the discussion that took place during the weekend of July 6, 1990, was inspired by a local newspaper article which included an accompanying photo of a UFO. Haley recalled the article addressed the possible threat of UFOs, and an ensuing conversation led to considerations of the childhood sighting that occurred many years earlier near Birmingham.

The article and subsequent discussion launched Haley's investigation that went on to take her down a 20+ year winding path that included dramatic changes in perspectives, contact from mysterious strangers and a wide variety of interactions with high profile members of ufology, among other noteworthy occurrences. Intriguing as that may all be, there were additional interesting events that were shaping UFO Land that very weekend, the weekend of July 6, 1990; a weekend that, for whatever specific reasons and purposes, forever changed a woman's life.

MUFON Symposium

The MUFON 1990 International UFO Symposium was themed, “The Impact of ET Contact Upon Society,” was held in Pensacola, Florida, and took place the weekend of July 6, the same weekend Haley and family held their discussion that eventually dramatically changed her life. This coincidence was unknown to Haley until I informed her of the dates of the symposium during a conversation we had during March, 2011. She evidently never knew.

While Haley and family reminisced in Alabama about saucers of yesteryear, and as motivated by a newspaper article published July Fourth week, 1990, about potential UFO threats, Mufonians were coincidentally gathering in Pensacola, preparing for contact with ET. The UFO craze originating in nearby Gulf Breeze, a suburb of Pensacola, was on full tilt. The symposium speaker line up therefore naturally included Ed and Frances Walters of Gulf Breeze sighting and abduction fame, questionable as their fiasco may have eventually become. According to archived MUFON Journals, additional presenters included then-abduction guru Budd Hopkins, now conclusively demonstrated by Carol Rainey to have both committed and endorsed fraud during his traveling side shows, and Dr. Rima Laibow, advocate for the use of hypnosis as a memory retrieval tool and wife of career military intelligence officer Major General Albert “Bert” N. Stubblebine III.

The site of the conference was originally the Pensacola Hilton, where the event began but was transferred to the nearby Pensacola Civic Center. The Director's Message, July, 1990, MUFON Journal, stated in part:

Due to air-conditioning problems in the ballroom of the Pensacola Hilton, the Saturday and Sunday events were transferred to the beautiful Pensacola Civic Center, across the street, where the overflow crowd could be better accommodated to the satisfaction of over 850 attendees.

In the same Journal, Dan Wright wrote:

Perhaps most important was the foresight of chairpersons Vicki Lyons and Charles Flannigan to engage the professional services of Bill Richards to handle all electronic needs. For, what transpired in the final 36 hours before the Saturday AM opening of the sessions would have stymied other host committees.

Imagine being in their position when informed at that late hour that the hotel auditorium's air conditioning system has failed and cannot be rectified in time. Then, having quickly secured an alternate site, but in need of major electronic enhancements, you make all the arrangements only to have the truck carrying the equipment involved in a serious accident that destroyed the sensitive items.

No doubt with aspirin bottle in hand, Mr. Richards somehow saved the day, while other committee members hastily prepared notices as to the alternate site.

Yet another chain of events was set in motion that same weekend. This additional situation is, by any definition, extraordinary. A group of six National Security Agency soldiers, possessing high level security clearances, went absent without leave under most bizarre circumstances.

The group stated they believed themselves to be in contact with aliens and the Virgin Mary. Their former unit, the now-disbanded 701^st Military Intelligence Brigade of Augsberg, West Germany, specialized in electronic warfare techniques. Details of exactly when the group abandoned their posts are difficult to obtain, but they seem to have gone AWOL somewhere between Friday, July 6, and Monday, July 9, 1990. Reports vary, as do testimonies of when and where the individuals were seen during the weekend in question.

However, we do know where and when they surfaced. We also know their unit fell under the former command of Major General Stubblebine, who's wife, you will recall, was speaking at the MUFON symposium. These reportedly runaway electronics experts, military intelligence personnel and, if we are to believe their sincerity at the time, self-described contactees, were taken into police custody on Saturday, July 14, and Sunday, July 15, 1990, in none other than Gulf Breeze, Florida. They were literally down the street from the site of the problem-plagued MUFON symposium. Enter the Gulf Breeze Six.