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-
- The following is an article that was published in the HUFON
- Journal, 1992.
-
-
-
- Debunking Versus Counterintelligence: Reflections of a Pro-
- Ufologist
-
- by Richard D. Butler
-
-
-
- To the pro-ufologist, debunking and counterintelligence (CI)
- efforts are seen as the greatest hindrances to legitimate
- research. The two terms are frequently used as synonyms. In fact,
- they are two very distinct operations. Debunking has two sources:
- the U.S. government and civilians.
-
- The civilian debunkers are usually professional academics, whose
- motivationis principally reactionary protection against a
- challenge to their world view. They see UFOs, and belief in UFOs
- and even organized study of UFOs as a threat to their own reality
- system. The protective strategy is, in psychological terms, the
- well-known process called "denial." We see it in alcoholics, and
- we see it in UFO-bashers. It is also quite an efficient way to
- handle complex data and hypotheses. Simply deny it, make a joke,
- and move on and away from the challenge. Ridicule is an almost
- essential part of the denial process. The debunker strives to
- convince not only his audience that the subject is nonsense, but
- he must also convince himself. The self-imposed wall of denial is
- enforced by ridicule. There is nothing new about the debunking
- process. The history of science is, in a sense, the history of
- debunking.
-
- Clearly, every important advance in science has been met with
- ridicule. A recent example is the development of the atomic bomb.
- Top scientists were skeptical that the bomb would work. President
- Roosevelt's military aide stated that, as an expert in explosives,
- he could assure the President that the atomic bomb would never,
- and could never, explode! Yet in the early morning hours over the
- Trinity Site, a tiny flower of hell blossomed in the desert. The
- impossible had become awesomely real. Physicist J. Robert
- Oppenheimer was heard intoning, "Behold I become death, a
- shatterer of worlds." This was an apt epitaph for the debunkers,
- whose psychological world was shattered. Debunking has been with
- us since the first debunker laughed at the man who decided to move
- out of the cave. In a particularly difficult field of research
- like ufology, the debunker must be accepted as something that
- simply comes with the territory. We must groan, but accept the old
- saying, "If you can╒t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.╥
-
- The second category of debunking is the official U.S. government
- version. This brings us into the deep waters of
- counterintelligence. CI is defined as specific and planned
- activities conducted to destroy the effectiveness of a foreign
- intelligence operation. There are various sub-operations within
- the heading of CI. The one of most importance to this discussion
- is counterespionage, which is those activities carried out to
- neutralize another intelligence gathering group. Its operational
- parameters include penetration, deception, and manipulation of
- those suspected of conducting espionage activities. And it's all
- perfectly legal: presidential executive orders have made it so.
- Because these activities are necessarily covert, not much is known
- about them by the general public.
-
- CI operations are staffed by highly skilled and dedicated
- personnel. Their goal is to deny an enemy information which could
- be used to destroy our lives, property, and way of life. But how
- does the UFO business tie in? National Intelligence is the key
- term. This is defined as any intelligence information produced by
- the CIA (or other equivalent agency) that bears on the broad
- aspects of national policy and the national security of the United
- States. This intelligence is then analyzed to determine if a
- threat condition exists. If the answer is "yes," a Threat Analysis
- Report is prepared. The report identifies and locates the threat,
- and estimates the potential damage levels which the threat could
- inflict. The Threat Analysis Report is sent to the National
- Security Council (NSC) for review. The Council, in turn, advises
- the President with respect to formulation and integration of
- domestic, foreign, and military policies. Once the threat is
- confirmed by the NSC, various agencies will be tasked to perform
- both the intelligence and counterintelligence functions, as well
- as accelerated defensive weapons programs.
-
- It is time to look at the UFO intelligence gathering program. Most
- ufologists will probably be shocked by the nature and dimensions
- of this operation. Every ufologist and UFO organization in the
- world is an overt intelligence-gathering asset of the United
- States. Your job as a ufologist is to monitor all UFO activities,
- including sightings, landings and abductions. This information is
- published, providing an intelligence channel back into the system.
-
- The CIA has the mission of collecting all published civilian UFO
- intelligence data. An Air Force public information release (still
- in use) tells us that their investigation of UFOs ended with the
- deactivation of Project Blue Book. Further, it says that UFO
- investigations have been turned over to academic institutions and
- civilian UFO research organizations. In practice, this means that
- information of genuine scientific value will not be overlooked. In
- other words, Blue Book never really ended, it just changed hands.
- And, whether you know it or not, or like it or not, you are part
- of the intelligence-gathering network, feeding straight to the
- CIA's UFO files. But this particular brand of intelligence data is
- perfectly open to the public, in the form of UFO books, journals
- and public meetings. And this presents the government with a
- unique problem. As a UFO researcher, you are simultaneously
- gathering data for the government, and trying to break through the
- wall of secrecy to discover what the government knows. You are
- spying for them, and spying on them. By spying on your own
- government and, in fact, doing so in a very aggressive manner, you
- automatically trigger the counter-intelligence machinery.
-
- The task of screwing you up, meaning the official CI operation
- against ufologists, is assigned to Security and Counter-
- intelligence Special Operations departments within various
- intelligence agencies. Note the three main mission criteria: (1)
- Denial to ufologists of the government's offensive and defensive
- weapons capabilities; (2) Denial to ufologists of the government's
- intelligence gathering capabilities and level of analysis; and (3)
- Prevention of direct or indirect Psychological Warfare effect. Are
- these measures justifiable? In the balance are our rights as U.S.
- citizens versus the degradation of America's national security
- caused by release of the UFO information? With this in mind, let's
- review the three criteria in detail. Item (1) is fairly obvious.
- If a potential enemy learns our weapons technology, he can develop
- countermeasures. This in turn would render the weapons system
- useless, and make us vulnerable to attack. So the answer is a
- clear and resounding "No!" to release. Item (2) is the reverse
- side of item (1). We are gathering information in order to make
- the enemy's weapons ineffective. Here is a purely hypothetical
- example. Suppose we are successful through FOIA, or through what
- you must admit amounts to standard espionage techniques which we
- call "UFO research," and discover that the government has photos
- of a UFO hovering above a submarine. Moreover, the information we
- have obtained tells us that the submarine is at a depth of 50
- fathoms. We also get pictures taken at 100 and 200 fathoms, and
- quickly publish all the facts. The Soviet submarine commanders
- would get the message at once. The U.S. anti-submarine
- surveillance technology is only capable of imaging down to 200
- fathoms. So they would design attack strategies in which they
- would cruise without worry at depths below that level. Bad news
- for our side, and it puts ufologists on the wrong end of the logic
- of item (2). Item (3) is by far the most complex issue.
- Psychological Warfare is accomplished by two main methods. First,
- direct aggressive efforts aimed at the enemy, and second, indirect
- damage caused by release of information regarding the enemy's
- capabilities and intentions. The purpose of "Psy War" is to erode
- the will of the enemy nation, and it can have a devastating impact
- on military effectiveness. A battle lost in the mind usually
- translates directly to military defeat.
-
- But the effects of Psy War go beyond military targets. Both
- government and private institutions can be severely damaged. An
- example is the stock market crash which took place just before
- the Gulf War. This is minor compared with the psychological shock
- waves that would be produced by release of certain UFO
- information. In fact, the harm would almost certainly be
- unprecedented in terms of damage levels, with major impact on
- basic religious and economic institutions.
-
- The major methods employed by UFO counterintelligence are
- debunking and disinformation. Debunking can be as simple as using
- the technique of over-simplification of analysis. For example, the
- time-honored quick answer to a UFO sighting, such as "weather
- balloon," or "swamp gas." Disinformation, however, should be our
- main area of concern. It uses a technique known in the trade as
- "plausible denial." One way to view this is that the information
- is 2% truth and 98% nonsense, of some mixture of the two, but
- never the whole truth. It must appear legitimate on the surface,
- but have enough bunk in it to send you off in a totally wrong
- direction.
-
- By far the most powerful weapon in the UFO counter-intelligence
- arsenal is the ufologists themselves. A former CI officer once
- remarked to me about a prominent New York City ufologist, "If he
- didn't exist, we'd have to invent him." There is nothing that
- counterintelligence operators appreciate more than a gullible
- ufologist i.e. born again lesbian lizards from Antares, seven-foot
- alien cockroaches with hyperactive libidos, etc. The result is
- that the credibility of the entire UFO research community is
- debased. Little wonder that the press treats the subject as a
- joke. That's what the CI people work so hard to accomplish. The
- "aliens are eating us" crowd is the answer to the CI prayers. This
- brings us to the question of whether the government is justified
- in withholding certain information from the public based in its
- psychological impact alone. The first NSC meeting was held in
- September, 1947. One of the main topics is rumored to have been
- the retrieval of a crashed alien aircraft at Roswell. We might
- know if this rumor is true, but the minutes of that meeting have
- been removed by the CIA from the National Archives. Interestingly,
- they were removed in February, 1979. This is when intelligence
- operatives discovered that a book telling the truth about the
- Roswell crash was about to be published. It then became necessary
- to clean up the "paper trail," among other CI moves to protect the
- Roswell secret. The NSC had to consider the Roswell UFO crash only
- eight years after the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" broadcast,
- in which panic ensued when the public thought Martians were
- invading. Little wonder that President Truman kept mum. Was this a
- sound policy? I believe it was in 1947, and on through to today.
- At least in the sense that the public was not ready for the
- stunning revelation of aliens in our midst. But the public will
- never be ready! Nor is there any way to prepare the public.
- Therefore, further concealment is futile, as well as morally
- unjustifiable.
-
- In terms of national security, when a government is forced to
- treat its own populace as an enemy, then that government is
- already defeated and has lost its right to exist. Abductees are
- the only directly affected portion of the population. Granted, it
- is a very tiny fraction. But have we decided to write them off, to
- list them as an acceptable loss in this shadowy but nevertheless
- very real War of the Worlds?
-
- In closing, I wish to express my sympathy for those in government
- who are faced with these terrible decisions. I know you desire to
- do the right thing. To my colleagues in ufology, my advice is: be
- very careful what you ask for, because sometimes your wishes are
- granted. If your fervent wishes are granted, our whole
- civilization will suddenly have a new, revolutionary set of ideas
- about who and what we are. Can you take responsibility for the
- cataclysm? Although I have used the term "threat" in this
- discussion, it should be obvious that if the aliens are truly
- hostile, we would have learned that the very, very hard way long
- ago.
-
- That there are great changes in store for mankind is certain. How
- we as a people handle those changes will determine the level of
- loss to our social and spiritual realities. There is much to lose
- but equally as much to gain. Or, as the alien may have said, "Lose
- a planet, gain a galaxy."
-
- Think about it.
-
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