POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) -- The subject is Unidentified Flying Objects andpossible U.S. government coverups of their existence. The data, presentedsuccinctly by Robert Hastings, comes from years of research and papers obtainedunder the Freedom of Information Act. The conclusion is that something akin to the so-called Star Wars spacedefense plan already exists, only it's aliens who control the machinery. Hastings, an independent civilian researcher presented his "UFOs: The HiddenHistory" lecture to an overflow audience at Idaho State University recently. In it, he portrayed an ongoing coverup by the Air Force, FBI and CIA whichhas come to light since over 600 previously classified documents were obtainedby Bruce Maccabbee, an optical physicist working for the U.S. Navy, and W. ToddZechel, a former National Security Agency employee. The documents include internal memos, reports from air traffic controllersand pilots and North American Air Defense directors' logs which Hastings says"document a pattern of overflights and interference by UFOs at military nuclearinstallations since the late 1940s." The most provocative document is a memo from Guy Hottel, now deceased, to FBIDirector J. Edgar Hoover in 1950 discussing the recovery of three flyingsaucers, "Each one occupied by three bodies of human shape but only three feettall," recovered in New Mexico. Other papers from the CIA discuss the need to get information on UFOs todetermine national security implications and overflights and landings by saucersat Air Force bases, attempted intercepts by Air Force fighters and eyewitnessaccounts from security personnel. Hastings says incidents at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., in 1966-67 and1975, Loring AFB in Maine, Los Alamos Research Facility in New Mexico and otheroverflights, "expressed clear interest (by UFOs) in nuclear bomb storagehangars." The latest document, dated August, 1980 describes, "a round disk-shaped craftsighted by security forces near Kirtland AFB, New Mexico." The object apparently sat down next to a storage area with 400 nuclearwarheads. Hastings says he has eyewitness accounts of triggering mechanismsmalfunctioning and fires of unknown origin taking place after overflights atother installations. "They may be selectively sending signals that they have the power to shutdown a nuclear launch," Hastings said. "Whoever is flying these things has aninterest in our nuclear weapons capabilities. I've had maintenance personnel whocorroborated that when the missiles have been inspected (following UFOover-flights) they were found to be non-operative." Hastings added that Zechel contacted Air Force Col. Robert B. Willingham whoswore out a deposition that he had first-hand knowledge of a crash recoveryoperation on the Texas-Mexico border in 1950, headed by Col. John Bowen. Bowenwould neither confirm nor deny the incident, Hastings added. "I have two other NSA sources, neither of them who know each other, who weretold that alien bodies are stored at Brooks Aeromedical Laboratories in SanAntonio, Tex," he continued. "Why would these people swear out affidavits attesting to something so crazy?They haven't made any money off it and they appear to be publicity-shy." Hastings also has a copy of a letter written by then Arizona Senator BarryGoldwater to Lee M. Graham stating, "I have given up acquiring access to theso-called blue room at Wright-Patterson (Air Force Base, Ohio) as I have had onelong string of denials from chief after chief." Hastings said reports indicate saucer remains are stored at the facility. Other reports range from a saucer that buzzed an Atlas IntercontinentalBallistic Missle which later malfunctioned in 1964 to then CIA executiveassistant Victor Marchetti (who later wrote a book on the subject) stating forthe record that he came across information that indicated saucers had crashed,been secretly recovered and involved, "very sensitive operations." Hastings says he's not out to "get the government." He says he simply ispresenting the facts, which have been routinely denied by the Air Force, CIA andNORAD for years. He says he has no answers and that he is not making very muchmoney lecturing 40 times per year at $750 plus travel expenses per talk. Critics and skeptics of the program are numerous, from intelligence andmilitary personnel to scientists like Cornell University's Carl Sagan, who saysthat until he sees phyisical evidence of UFOs, he concludes that they do notexist. "Sagan has missed the boat," said Hastings. "He has not been prepared toreview the type of data that has come forth. The most vocal critics are thepersons who have never studied the data." Of UFOs and any alien life they might contain, Hastings says, "Perhaps theyconsider themselves our guardians and are here to keep the children from burningtheir hands on a hot stove." Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
