Book Review: 'The Roswell Deception' by James Carrion

In his latest work, The Roswell Deception, writer, researcher, former intelligence analyst, and former MUFON International Director James Carrion further lays out his hypothesis of human deception surrounding the now famous UFO Summer of '47 and, particularly, the Roswell incident. Readers unfamiliar with Carrion's previous work, Anachronism, will find themselves better informed of the dynamics and proposed possibilities if they read it before diving into The Roswell Deception.

Carrion strongly suspects deception operations executed by the U.S. intelligence community during the mid 1940's included activity around a number of events typically considered to be UFO-related - or at least that's how UFO enthusiasts tend to categorize the events. Intelligence analysts, maybe not so much.

Carrion offers readers a different perspective to "what" may have been taking place during the era, "how" it may have taken place, and the important "why" officials may have attempted to deceive adversarial intel analysts. Suffice it to say objectives would not have included leading either global adversaries or citizens to believe extraterrestrials were afoot, although collateral damage to that effect may have indeed occurred. Moreover, Carrion cites more than ample sources which document ambiguous press releases from intel officials, newspaper articles written by media sources linked to such officials, and authentic government documents which set the stage for both deception ops and protocols describing the tactics observed. 

The meat and potatoes of the hypothesis suggests a small group of U.S. intelligence professionals conducted deception operations for a variety of purposes, creating advantageous circumstances. Such circumstances included providing adversaries, namely Russia, "clues" which would be subjectively misread and result in incorrect conclusions, particularly about advanced weapons development (This writer finds the possibility intriguing the same IC proverbial sprinkling of breadcrumbs may continue to invoke subjective misinterpretations among UFO investigators). The situation may have ultimately created extremely desirable codebreaking opportunities. While conceding he cannot yet conclusively prove his theory, Carrion offers a fascinating chain of aptly documented events, relationships among the players, and cited official records in support of the hypothesis.

In one instance, the American Press and United Press were simultaneously provided differing press releases on the Roswell incident. As explained on page 432:

Lieutenant Warren Haught, the public information officer at Roswell Army Airfield dropped off the press releases at both KSWS and KGFL on July 8, 1947, but rather than each release being an exact copy of the other, there were significant differences between them. That makes no sense from a public relations perspective but makes complete sense from a cryptographic gardening perspective.

The releases are cited and explored, as are specific reasons for the potential relevance. More instances are also cited in which differing details of flying objects and purported crashes were provided to various media outlets (Spitsbergen gets mentions on pages 88 and 218, which, extremely interestingly, was the storied site of a likely government "plant" of a 1952 UFO crash story). Carrion theorizes purposes for publication of such 1946-47 stories included monitoring Russian communication channels, the options of which were vastly limited as compared to today. The result was an increase in opportunities to both break codes and flush out spies, depending on identifying sources of information for the foreign agents. Many intriguing circumstances are cited, including documented instances of pushing additional media outlets for coverage when one media source declined the story.

It's reasonable to conclude, to whatever extent Carrion may or may not be entirely correct, the topic was exploited for yet to be better understood purposes. To the author's credit, the implications and possibilities deserve further research and consideration. 

In this writer's opinion, the effort allotted to the Kenneth Arnold case makes the book a worthy read in itself. The more perplexing aspects of the saga are explored, with particular attention given to anonymous calls to a newspaper about meetings conducted with Arnold. The events could certainly be viewed in support of the author's theory as explained among the documentation of the circumstances. Those who feel themselves informed on the Summer of '47 would be well served to read the ideas and consider the citations in order to possibly develop some differing perspectives or, at the least, become better qualified to competently discuss and debate Carrion's material.

The Roswell Deception, p.35

Among the dozens of interesting items presented include a newspaper report on the actions of then-Deputy Chief of the Army Air Forces Lt. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg on July 8, 1947, a key media day in the Roswell saga as mentioned above. Explaining his suspicions deception planners were feeding stories to the wires, Carrion noted the media reported Vandenberg "hurried to his headquarters press section." However, a review of Vandenberg's desk log shows he arrived at work at 9:20 a.m. and had a routine day of meetings. It was not until after 6 p.m. on his way home that the general visited a public information officer. Not the actions of what we'd suspect to be a troubled officer, or, perhaps more importantly in this context, not the activity as reported by the press. 

Extensive effort is invested by the author in explaining and supplying documentation of specific weapons projects Russian and American intel officials were either pursuing or attempting to imply they were pursuing. The manners these projects indeed overlap into UFO lore is cited and relevant. 

There are many dynamics worthy of mention and deeper study, including a Russian effort to secure a German husband and wife team who were working on a saucer-like long range missile delivery system prior to the collapse of the Third Reich. This was followed by an allied disinformation effort which involved misrepresenting a discontinued weapons research and development project as an active top secret initiative, described to the press as an airborne weapon more powerful than the atomic bomb. Shortly thereafter, Kenneth Arnold and company began reporting flying discs.

The Roswell Deception, p.430 

Incidentally and potentially quite importantly, Arnold's sighting was not unique in several relevant ways, he just seems to have become the most well known. Similarly, the Roswell incident was just one of several purported crashed disc stories, possibly orchestrated to support rumors of weapons development and ultimately to snare spies. The Roswell incident was given much more UFO significance years later than was the case at the time. It was almost certainly not suspected by global intelligence analysts of being an ET spacecraft, and probably not much of the general public at the time either. Many inter-agency memos and related documents are explored as Carrion explains how he thinks the situations were orchestrated and the players manipulated. 

Among the biggest takeaways may well be the glaringly different picture that emerges from historic forensic research (as conducted by James Carrion) as compared to what we might term more UFO-friendly takes on the era. Carrion's work explores sources defined as credible by the professional research community, including verified documents, newspaper clippings, and records of declassified operations, among other items. Attention is given to chronological order, and the resulting work deserves careful consideration and objective, sincere feedback.

Another relevant takeaway is the extent American intel officers warned of Russian attacks from over the North Pole and targeting the northwest U.S. prior to a wave of disc sightings in the area. Numerous citations are offered which document much public concern the increasingly reported discs were Russian weapons. Also offered is documentation of apparent attempts to influence Arnold's beliefs surrounding the reports and his sighting. It seems entirely feasible the extraterrestrial origin questionably attributed to cases such as Maury Island, Arnold, and Roswell was more embedded after the fact, perhaps much more long after the fact, than was actually the initial circumstance as often assumed. 

The relevance concerning Carrion's theory is that Russian weapons development was publicly discussed by U.S. officials, yet chaos would ensue among Russians trying to assess the situation as much as was the case among American analysts not in the loop. Coded communications necessarily would involve specific terms and proper nouns, advantageous to breaking the codes.

The suspected deception planners are named and explored, including some of their possible media contacts. Readers familiar with the story lines will recognize the relevance of Joint Security Control. Rising in potential significance is Joint Counterintelligence Center, or JCIC. From page 459:

In April of 1947 the spy hunters of the early CIA, the Army and the Navy at the JCIC, were poised to set their nets and trap their prey. I hypothesize that what fueled their COMINT based counterintelligence would be gardened news stories planted in the summer of 1947 in the American Press – stories of flying saucers. When the CIA releases all the early records on the JCIC, we will know the truth of whether a gardening operation took place.

It could again be emphasized that to whatever extent Carrion may be correct about his suspicions, the involvement of intelligence agencies in the theatrics and their unclear agendas are confirmed. The specific events explored by Carrion are extremely unlikely to involve extraterrestrial or paranormal factors. It is also quite possible, as asserted by the author, the events explored are not entirely mundane, but involve intentional deception by the intelligence community. The resulting lines of research should accordingly take the possibilities into consideration. 

The Roswell Deception is 523 pages on pdf. It is available for free download at James Carrion's blog, Anachronism.

Steinberg Court Docs Include Scathing Beizer Letter

[Edit: If problems occur trying to view the Torson vs Steinbergs pdf linked throughout this post, view the file on Google Drive.]

Gene and Barbara Steinberg were sued in 2012 for failing to repay some $44,000 in personal loans to James M. Torson. The ensuing court motions included a scathing five-page letter penned by Steinberg's late brother-in-law Stephen Beizer, public records obtained from Coconino County Superior Court reveal. Beizer accused Steinberg of exploiting Beizer's personal plight in order to obtain cash donations, the vast amount of which, Beizer claimed, Steinberg kept for himself. 

Exhibit "A", p60 of pdf, Torson vs Steinbergs

The Steinbergs were eventually judged responsible for debt in excess of $44,000 in the case which began with a complaint for breach of contract filed against the couple by Torson. The debt was the result of 14 personal loans issued between 2011 and 2012. A promissory note for repayment was previously signed by the Steinbergs to Torson, but records indicate a total of just $50 was actually repaid, and not until legal action was imminent. Default judgments against the Steinbergs proceeded, and garnishments were attempted. The debt was eventually discharged in Gene Steinberg's 2016 bankruptcy filing.

Court records do not clarify specific reasons given by the Steinbergs to Torson for the purposes of the loans. Attempts to reach Torson for comment were not initially successful.

Attorneys acting on behalf of Torson submitted an application for writ of garnishment in 2012 on the now deceased Stephen Beizer, seeking payment from Beizer for the debt incurred by the Steinbergs. Steinberg has long dubiously claimed his publicized money woes were partly attributable to his generosity to Beizer. Steinberg further claimed Beizer was anticipating a lucrative financial settlement which would create a windfall for Steinberg, but no significant evidence of any such settlement has ever been produced.

Beizer did not mince words in his response to the 2012 application for writ of garnishment. In a hand-written letter to the court dated Nov. 27, 2012, Beizer stated:

...Gene proceeds to offer “help” in lifting our pending burdens of rent and utilities in return for a note acknowledging our indebtedness to him – 3-31-11 A note which he dictates and I write and sign...

Weeks pass, no help, no money... we are panicked and Gene assures us he will do what he said, BUT, he needs another note because a friend of his will loan him the money - $5,000 – which he needs two thousand because he's in a short term “pinch” - so he wants (Gene) reassurance that we (the Beizers) fully intend to pay him back...

Beizer goes on to describe telephone contact from a paralegal, Jennifer, acting on behalf of Torson, and Beizer's purported dismay when he was informed Steinberg obtained much more cash than the previously discussed $5,000:

After the first Jennifer conversation, I spoke to Gene via phone, and asked about $5,000? 44,000??? He said Jennifer misunderstood his association with this man in Flagstaff goes back many years to the time he was paying our bills – REALLY? NO! Jennifer said that $44,000 was given recently from ca. 4/11 to 1/12 – Now, what else had Gene lied about and to whom and how many “whoms” - turns out many, many, many whoms – like near VIRAL on the internet...

Beizer continued, writing about finding Steinberg's “extensive” cash solicitations, describing them as “Gene's begging for money from listeners of his internet programs and how many were angry and disillusioned because of his assertions/lies – how many people from many walks of life had read of my misfortune and the plight of my family and sent Gene vast sums of money to help us (my family) - 'crumbs' yes, indeed – compared to the money Gene received and used for his own enrichment...”

Beizer concluded:

...I had a surprise visit from someone with intimate knowledge of Gene's skull-duggery and it was admitted to me that Gene not only told wild and untrue stories about me and my family, but he posted a picture of MY SON on the internet for more sympathy and of course more money not for my son, but to fill his, Gene Steinberg's, pockets – from the moment in Sept 2012 going forward to eternity; I do not, my family does not owe, will never pay or give anything to the Defendants in this action. They are in debt to me and my family and it is so clear now that the CRUMBS are what we survived on, but the check for the MEAL is now ALL HIS RESPONSIBILITY TO PAY. We repudiate ANY DEBT to GENE or BARBARA STEINBERG.

To whatever extent Beizer's statements may or may not be entirely accurate (see the entire five-page letter submitted by Beizer, pp18-22 of pdf), his conflict with Steinberg makes it ever more clear that Steinberg's ongoing framing of the pair's relationship is less than transparent. Steinberg long used his claim of expecting a substantial sum of money from the Beizers as collateral to justify his hundreds of annual requests for handouts. However, Beizer could not have made it more apparent that no such repayment or gift was forthcoming. Steinberg nonetheless persisted with the story. 

Moreover and as explored in a previous blog post, Steinberg chronically failed to disclose to his following that Beizer pleaded guilty in 2004 to charges of Sale of Unregistered Securities and Theft. The charges arose out of what the Arizona Attorney General's Office described as bilking two elderly women out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Steinberg repeatedly spun Beizer as a victim worthy of charity, going as far as to criticize those who sought legal action against him, while never accurately portraying the circumstances. 

In 2009 Steinberg presented Beizer to Paracast listeners as a “currency trader.” In doing so, Steinberg neglected to disclose Beizer was, in fact, the purported down on his luck brother-in-law described in Steinberg's ongoing cash solicitations. Furthermore, Steinberg neglected to disclose to his Paracast and Tech Night Owl followings that Beizer pleaded guilty to felony theft charges, and neglected to disclose Beizer owed $186,000 in restitution to his theft victims. This was the case all while Steinberg solicited money, supposedly on behalf of Beizer, through emails dispersed to those followings.

However one chooses to interpret all of the public court documents, it remains glaringly clear Steinberg frequently misrepresents the situations. Omissions and inaccuracies are commonplace, while public solicitations for cash under the guise of chronic emergencies continues relentlessly from a man, Steinberg, who presents himself as a gold standard of reporting on issues surrounding the paranormal genre.

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Fraud or other crimes perpetrated through the internet may be reported at the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. Other resources include your state's Attorney General, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission.

Related blog posts:

Caveat Emptor: A Paracast Saga of Discrepancies, Omissions and Unpaid Restitution

Steinberg Bankruptcy Failed to Slow Claims of Cash Crisis 

Gene Steinberg Personal 'Emergency' Cash Solicitations Span Years, Hundreds of Emails 

We Didn't Start the Liar

There is such an overwhelmingly high number of incredible claims in ufology it can be challenging to apply some context. Given that is the case, it can be frustrating when people sometimes so adamantly demand more claims be accepted without providing adequate supporting evidence. They'll give us the evidence later, or let us in on the big news when they're able, they tell us.

Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter served as director
of the Central Intelligence Group and CIA
from May 1, 1947 to Oct. 7, 1950,
and was on the board of governors of the
National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena
from 1957 to 1962

During recent correspondence, a well-read UFO friend wrote that sometimes they think modern day UFO stories began as some kind of disinformation campaign which snowballed. Perhaps some of it involved something genuinely intangible, but maybe the topic was manipulated for various reasons. Everything then seemed to go crazy in the 1950's, they added, and then here we are.

I think a solid argument can be made to that effect. People have been seeing all kinds of things they can't explain throughout history, and their personal conditioning determines what they think they saw. It's part of the human experience. We're often predisposed to premature conclusions.

Just a few well orchestrated UFO hoaxes and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns could effectively provide enough material to allow future opportunists, sincere yet incorrect researchers, and confused individuals to continue to unwittingly propagate the stories. We see things, don't know what we saw, and fill in the blanks based on information - accurate or otherwise - we've been previously provided.

The manipulation of the UFO topic since the mid 20^th century has nothing to do with what genuinely unusual phenomena may or may not exist and have been reported throughout history. It's potentially a completely different topic, other than the occasional possible overlapping of reports which may involve genuinely unusual phenomena and their misinterpretations due to widely accepted yet unsupported assumptions.

Alien appendages, according to Robbert van den Broeke

A significant point is verifying claims prior to accepting them as fact. Prematurely accepting invalid claims puts us at risk of unintentionally perpetuating hoaxes and incorrect beliefs, which spread exponentially as we each pass them along. This stands to detrimentally affect how others interpret their experiences, and who they each influence in turn, and so on.

To bring this full circle and back to where we started, there is such a high number of sensational yet highly speculative UFO-related circumstances it is completely unreasonable to criticize those who request supporting evidence. I put together the following list, to the tune of Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire, of just a small fraction of researchers who promote such circumstances, along with a small sample of references to dubious instances. Maybe if someone asks why I keep going on about facts and conclusive evidence, I'll give them a link to this post and say, “Well, here are just a few reasons, for starters."


We Didn't Start the Liar

Maury Island, Groom Lake, Crop Circles, Heaven's Gate,

Tom Carey, Aviary, Meier's bin lid.

“Anonymous” was CIA, ET hybrid DNA,

Disclosure, film exposure, van den Broeke's squid.

Stephen Bassett, Steven Greer, Ata Boy ain't from here,

Howard Menger, autopsy, secret moon base.

Adamski, Adam Dew, beWITNESS pay per view,

Imbrogno, Bigelow, the Linda case.

We didn't start the liar

It was always scheming since the world's been dreaming

We didn't start the liar

But we did incite it with the foo fighters

Larry Warren's Rendlescam, Hopkins, Jacobs, Barbara Lamb,

Fastwalkers, Skinwalker, Morton jumped bail.

Carpenter, Bob Lazar, super soldier brawl on Mars,

MJ-12, Hangar 1, Steinberg email.

Gulf Breeze, Bill Knell, Pennsylvania's Roswell,

Don Schmidt, Yvonne Smith, and the STAR Team.

Chilean UFOs, Romanek videos,

Penguin, Falcon and strawberry ice cream!

We didn't start the liar

It was always scheming since the world's been dreaming

We didn't start the liar

But we did enable with some roundtables

Mock Congress presentations, cattle and human mutilations,

Leslie Kean, Wild Bill, talk radio.

Under Dulce they were fighting, Martin's automatic writing,

Roger Leir, John Lear, channeling, and Serpo.

John Ventre, Face on Mars, Alexander, To The Stars,

Implants, Jones rants, Sirius crowd fund.

Bill Moore story telling, Dolan found the slides compelling,

MUFON, MUFON, MUFON and MUFON!

We didn't start the liar

It was always scheming since the world's been dreaming

We didn't start the liar

But when we are gone it will still go on and on and on...

Advocating Higher Research Standards

The late Aladino Felix was the leader of a Brazilian right-wing paramilitary group, fought in World War II, and claimed to be the messiah of the Jewish people. As The Guardian reports, Felix wrote a book called My Contact with Flying Saucers in which he claimed to be in contact with extraterrestrials. He wrote the book under the pseudonym Dino Kraspedon.

Cult leader, false flag terrorist,
& self-proclaimed contactee, Aladino Felix

During the 1960's Felix led a group of police officers which carried out violent false flag terrorist attacks as a means to what they believed was a justifiable end: Brazilian dictatorships. Some 14 bombs were detonated by the group while the opposition was blamed for the attacks; a governing iron fist was supposedly required to protect the good citizens from the lawless terrorists. Targets included a bank and the Sao Paulo stock exchange before Felix was arrested in 1968 and served three years in prison. 

"He was seen as a crazy guy," said investigator Vasconcelo Quadros, "but he had a relationship with the authorities."

We could speculate how much that relationship influenced his decision to claim he knew extraterrestrials, or to what extent he thought such a claim would further his far right-wing agenda. What is relatively clear, however, is people might have a lot of undisclosed yet relevant circumstances surrounding their extraordinary claims. 

Fact-checking and suspending judgment pending conclusive information are essential. It's also important to remember it's no one's responsibility to deny a claim or sort out convoluted, cryptic statements released piece meal. It's the responsibility of an individual and an organization to present their material in competent, coherent manners in the first place, and to provide evidence justifying conclusions. Don't rationalize and make excuses for anything less.

The UFO genre contains a well documented, bulging archive of empty claims that were not only initially accepted without question, but in many cases continue to be promoted after reasonably shown to be false. Such circumstances are by no means limited to distant Cold War games of yesteryear, but also include much more recent events.

Oh, those drones

For those who are newer to the steeplechase or show a lack of willingness to keep such incidents in current discussions, we might reminisce about the great drone hoax. Photos and witness accounts started popping up, seemingly corroborating one another, yet diligent researchers found problems with the photos. Then the alleged witnesses didn't pan out. By that time, the story had legs, was covered by some higher profile UFO personalities and radio shows, and there are still some who will label you a debunker for desiring more evidence of the drone invasion than a picture on a social media account. 

There was the Great Lakes Dive Company case in 2006 in which someone claimed to have striking evidence of a crashed UFO on the floor of a lake. It was a rather complexly executed chain of events in which supporting materials included alleged sonar images which could not be authenticated and an AP story submitted to an e-list which was almost certainly hoaxed. When James Carrion bird dogged the case, including holding the self-described spokesperson of the dive company accountable for his claims, the case fell apart. If you never heard of it, that's probably the main reason why.

The Roswell Slides fiasco was one of the most absurd examples of claims demanded to be accepted absent evidence the genre has ever seen, which is really saying something. Suffice it to say it didn't work out. 

And then there was - oh, never mind.

In 2012 Leslie Kean dramatically promoted a case of what turned out to be an insect caught on camera during an airshow in Chile. She doubled down and the second Chilean case didn't hold water either. Kean's work was previously drawn into question when she chose to ignore conflicting points in one of her favored cases when the discrepancy was brought to her attention by a group of researchers at Reality Uncovered discussion forum. Moreover, Kean credulously supported the James Mortellaro case, a man in the Budd Hopkins entourage of alleged alien abductees. 

The case fell apart terribly, resulting in a great deal of embarrassment for all involved. Among other problems, Hopkins and Mortellaro never produced supporting medical documentation they long promised was forthcoming. Hopkins repeatedly urged others to trust that the medical evidence was for real (Please note the problematic nature of assuring the public something is forthcoming rather than producing it in the first place). Mortellaro eventually came up with an alleged medical report, supposedly documenting his abduction-related injuries and their miraculous healing, but it was identified by medical professionals as a fabrication. Hopkins' own foundation announced the case was deemed not worthy of further investigation, credible evidence was never produced, and that alleged official documents proved to be fabricated.

Which brings us back to Kean and claims not proportionate to the evidence. Maybe the 2017 articles, in which Kean was involved, on the AATIP were completely accurate. The problem is we have not yet been shown if that is so. Specifically, buildings were reported to have been modified for the storage of debris - alloys, it was reported - retrieved from, basically, UFOs. It was also reported that UFO witnesses were examined for physiological changes. Verification of such claims would be appreciated, and, given the history of the UFO genre, it's unreasonable to even expect, much less demand, such claims be accepted on trust and without question.

We regularly observe in TTSA a problematic and irrational method of operation: TTSA personnel release a statement or make a claim, then deny accountability for the situation. They accuse those of being unfairly critical who request verification for the claim, or for requesting further clarification on a talking point TTSA itself introduced. This is unreasonable, no matter what evidence may eventually be produced, and should be universally recognized as unreasonable throughout the community.

The above bogus cases are but a small sample of the hoaxes and incorrect claims regularly dispersed to the UFO community. We could make a list that would read like Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire. Given that verifiable situation, settling for less than authentic documentation is not only ill advised and in contradiction to professional research standards, it's a fool's errand.

It is not anyone's responsibility to deny or disprove a claim. It is the responsibility of a professional researcher to provide adequate documentation to support their point in the first place. Demand it, and call it out when you see otherwise.

TTSA Report to SEC: Garry Nolan Resigns from Advisory Board, $37 Million Deficit

A financial report submitted by To The Stars Academy (TTSA) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) states the resignation of Advisory Board member Dr. Garry Nolan was effective Aug. 31. The report for the fiscal semiannual period ending June 30, 2018, discloses financial data, including an accumulated deficit in excess of $37 million. 

Dr. Nolan is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University. His involvement in the UFO community includes work on what came to be known as the Starchild skull. He was also involved in controversial analysis of the Atacama skeleton prior to serving on the TTSA Advisory Board. Offered an opportunity to comment on his resignation, Dr. Nolan replied in an Oct. 3 email:

The answer is really quite straightforward.

I had a number of conflicts of interest with my current employment agreement at Stanford and with other, purely conventional, mainstream business interests.  I remain fully supportive of the goals and ideals of TTSA.  I plan to advise them as needed-- while remaining under no long-standing contractual framework.  Of course, I might from time to time enter into a short term CDA on matters that arise, especially with respect to my academic scientific interests and where I might be able to provide relevant expertise.

As I see it, this is more in alignment with my academic work and will (hopefully) ensure I maintain maximum credibility on matters related to the Phenomena.  This should eliminate any financial or other conflicts vis-à-vis TTSA in how I discuss such matters.  I certainly look forward to the continued success of the TTSA enterprise and I remain good friends with, and a colleague of, all the individuals on the TTSA team.  As you know, I am one of the few "mainstream" scientists willing to openly discuss matters related to this area of interest, and I expect to continue my public, and private, interest in the arena.

Operations and Finances

TTSA stated it continues to conduct meetings with potential strategic partners, including the U.S. government, in the report submitted to the SEC. Details were not specified. Also reported was the closing of over a million dollars in funding:

However, TTSA declared an accumulated deficit of $37,432,000. "These factors raise doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern," the report states. TTSA indicates it will continue to offer the sale of common stock to third parties and use a revolving line of credit to try to fund operations. 

"If we are unable to obtain sufficient amounts of additional capital," it explains, "we may be required to reduce the scope of our planned operations, which could harm our business, financial condition and operating results."

The accounting firm of Louis Tommasino, CPA, who is listed as TTSA Chief Financial Officer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment and further clarification. TTSA also did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the report and deficit.

Related reading on the topic includes Robert Sheaffer's March 3, 2018 post at his blog, Bad UFOs. Sheaffer describes his visit to the office of Tommasino to inquire about discrepancies in financial circumstances surrounding To The Stars Academy as reported by Dun and Bradstreet.

Hunt for the Skinwalker-DIA Connection

Claims of intelligence agency involvement in UFO and paranormal research have been abundant since the 2017 NYT story on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Some of the suspicions of relationships between the intelligence and UFO communities were confirmed and others are certainly warranted. Yet other such connections are rather loosely formed and lack substantiation while nonetheless increasingly taken for granted as common knowledge. 

Alleged Defense Intelligence Agency involvement at Skinwalker Ranch is one such often vaguely described circumstance. While a significant Skinwalker-DIA connection may eventually prove valid to some extent, its verification is elusive. It's important we proceed carefully in drawing conclusions, and perhaps wait to do so until adequate evidence is readily available.

George Knapp has long been central to the Skinwalker saga. On the heels of the well known NYT story, Knapp reported NIDS work at the ranch and his related book "caught the attention of the DIA and Senator Reid." Perhaps so. It would be both helpful and interesting to know what specific DIA personnel, as well as how the events unfolded. 

Others have been much more direct and conclusive in putting the DIA at Skinwalker, though evidence is lacking and not in proportion to their seeming certainty. In statements published in June at Mysterious Universe, filmmaker Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell discussed what he described as learning about DIA involvement at the ranch. "The DIA attempted to scientifically investigate the occurrences experienced at Skinwalker Ranch," Corbell further stated.

"The fact that the United States government was involved at all is fascinating," he added. The full paragraph, quoted for context:

Like most people, I first heard about Skinwalker Ranch from the book, Hunt For The Skinwalker by George Knapp and Dr. Colm Kelleher. I was initially drawn by the stories about a broad scale of paranormal events, and my interest was cemented years later when I learned about the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) involvement, even though I could not publicly acknowledge it. The DIA attempted to scientifically investigate the occurrences experienced at Skinwalker Ranch. Investigators used the unique location as a “living laboratory,” attempting to understand for themselves the varied phenomena that display on and around the property. One of the aims was to determine if The Phenomenon presented a threat to National Security, and another was to attempt to determine the mechanisms utilized by The Phenomenon. The fact that the United States government was involved at all is fascinating.

A request for further comment was sent to an email address offered at Corbell's website. I asked if a source could be provided for the assertion the DIA was involved at Skinwalker Ranch. Also requested were comments and supporting materials that would help clarify such involvement. Corbell did not immediately respond.

I empathize a great deal with finding such info of interest, but I strongly urge those relaying it to provide the supporting docs and sources if possible. I'd also encourage the rest of us to delay making up our minds about the circumstances until such supporting evidence is publicly available.

Moreover, I invite consideration we can't know if such work was actually scientific if we aren't informed how it was conducted and what took place. Casual and incorrect use of the term "scientific" to describe activities undertaken in UFO and paranormal genres should often receive much more scrutiny, in my opinion. That's the case whether or not Corbell may prove to be correct about his expressed understandings of the Skinwalker situation.

Robert Bigelow

In years past I sought evidence through the Freedom of Information Act for IC involvement with Robert Bigelow-founded organizations National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) and Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). FOIA requests submitted to multiple agencies returned no results, but I did not specifically query DIA until more recently. 

A request submitted to DIA in late 2017, seeking copies of contracts undertaken with and funding provided to NIDS, resulted in no responsive documents. In the wake of the latest wave of assertions that Skinwalker research involved DIA, I additionally asked specifically about BAASS. I submitted an FOIA request to DIA seeking contracts and files pertaining to BAASS. To be clear, this is not the same as previous yet to be filled FOIA requests seeking documents concerning the AATIP. DIA responses are pending on involvement with BAASS as well as records on the AATIP.

There are several complications with the increasingly popular assertions of the Skinwalker-DIA connection. The time frame becomes a point of question, and Bigelow's involvement is a potential source of confusion. The overlapping presence of various researchers and personnel of TTSA, intelligence agencies, and Bigelow organizations may also lead to incorrect assumptions and premature conclusions. 

Luis Elizondo of To The Stars Academy

Some of the vague generalizations offered by not just interested parties, but sometimes TTSA leaders and self-described insiders, are troubling, or at the least lack substantiation. It is such very generalizations that tend to cause some researchers to suspect several UFO-related topics are being haphazardly inserted into discussions of the scope of the AATIP. Some of those topics may in actuality amount to little more than recreational and unofficial interests of those formerly involved in the AATIP. The bottom line is details must be verified, not just inferred or asserted absent documentation.

Personally, I suspect the intelligence community may well have been officially involved in research at Skinwalker Ranch. However, I am not convinced the purposes were entirely limited to the more popularly accepted assumptions or, if so, that the work bore substantial results. I'm also not convinced the acting agency necessarily or exclusively would have been DIA. Most of all, I'd prefer to suspend judgment until conclusive information is actually available.

Verifying any such involvement, establishing if it was related to science-based research, and identifying the objectives remain critical to understanding the full extent of the situation. We simply cannot do so until we have the opportunities to view authentic documents clarifying funding entities, project objectives, methodologies, means of measuring progress, and similar relevant information.  

Perhaps in the end what TTSA, Bigelow orgs, and the Skinwalker saga teach us, at least in part, is that if people desire to present information in coherent, systematic and clear ways, they do so. If the issues are muddled and confusing, perhaps we should more deeply consider the extent they actually want us to fully understand their activities. It is not our responsibility to go behind people making claims and fact-check their statements; it is their responsibility to offer conclusive evidence in the first place when they frame their claims as fact. 

The only way to actually gain insight into what an intelligence agency claims took place within any given project is to obtain the verifying documents. If people cry foul, trying to lead us to believe otherwise and relax our standards, it is completely reasonable to inform them conclusions cannot be drawn until the available evidence allows. 

FOIA Watch

Some truly interesting items are emerging through the efforts of researchers using the Freedom of Information Act. John Greenewald at The Black Vault is set to receive over 4,000 MKULTRA-era "behavioral modification" docs from the CIA.

As is the case with many researchers, Greenewald obtained the CIA compact disc collection of MKULTRA files. After posting them for visitors at The Black Vault, a user noticed some of the docs named in the index were apparently missing from the collection. As explained in an Aug. 15, 2018 Newsweek article:

The existence of the previously unknown MKUltra pages was discovered in 2016, when a Black Vault user, Oscar Diggs, discovered irregularities in the collection the CIA disclosed to Greenewald. Diggs created a list of missing records and pages described in the index. The CIA refused to fill in the gaps in their original FOIA disclosure, claiming that extant MKUltra documents pertaining to "behavioral modification" were not the same as those pertaining to "mind control." Greenewald is currently crowdfunding to cover the fees imposed by the CIA for the remaining 4,358 pages.

The crowdfunding effort is apparently complete and the publication of the docs seems to be on the horizon. Greenewald will be posting them as soon as he gets them, he reports via Twitter.

In related news, Emma Best and the crew over at MuckRock obtained and posted an Overview of the Office of Medical Services, 1947-1972 from the CIA. It was composed in 1973 and approved for release in 2017. Lots of material there.

Meanwhile, Steven Aftergood at Federation of American Scientists sought and obtained a list from the Department of Energy of classified programs involving the use of human research subjects. Whatever the purposes, the list indicates some dozen such projects were active in 2017 at the DOE.

Any number of valid FOIA submissions might be gleaned from the above material. We continue to have several lines out here at The 'Trail. Among other topics, we await responses on the following.

After a big initial splash, reports on the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program seem to consistently create more questions than answers. Numerous researchers await files pertaining to a variety of requests submitted to various agencies, including this writer who sought project docs from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In 2017 we obtained a 1978 NSA memo prepared by an assignee about their attendance at a UFO conference. The conference was the 1978 MUFON Symposium and the author of the memo was in all reasonable likelihood Tom Deuley, a long time staple of MUFON and the UFO community. Subsequently requested from NSA was the release of any other material composed by the assignee pertaining to UFOs, UFO conferences or related subject matter. NSA responded that it does not use "UFO" as a category to file memos and similar documents. We therefore requested release of all material composed by the author of the 1978 memo and we look forward to the Agency's response.

We also await responses from various agencies on files pertaining to Project PALLADIUM, including reports and details of missions conducted. PALLADIUM activities involved collaborations between NSA and CIA teams which projected false paints upon radar screens. Some mid 20th century missions included the coordinated release of "balloon-borne metalized spheres of different sizes" with the false radar paints, according to a report authored by CIA man Gene Poteat.

Such material might be relevant to the UFO community for rather obvious reasons. Perhaps we could eventually cross reference what we learn about PALLADIUM missions with archives of UFO reports.