Roswell 1947 - Documents on the witnesses

In our briefing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Intelligence Group, it became very clear to us that they were naive. They did not really know any more about this effort than we do, if as much. That is because, as Bob Dean pointed out earlier, most of the people in government were not in government when I retired twenty five years ago, they are younger people. The files going back fifty years just no longer exist. They've either been purged, compromised or whatever. They don't exist.

So when we blame government for not being forthright, they really don't have anything to be forthright about, at least at that level. Now, somewhere there's knowledgeable people, ...the question often comes up as to how they could have kept this a secret for so long. And friends they haven't. It's been around us all the time, but it has been denied, and obscured. ... the prevalence in the modern era of so many events - the sightings, the continual mutilation events, the so-called abduction events ... I find that quite alarming. ... With regard to the technology itself, I work with folks who do know what is in our technological data base and what is available to modern armies. The so-called ET technology, the ability to have silent engines and flying machines that make no sound, flying machines that have the characteristics that are consistent with reproduction of UFO sightings, are not in any nations arsenal, but they do exist.

So if there are back engineered technologies existing, they are probably in the hands of this group of individuals, formerly government, formerly perhaps intelligence, formerly, under private sector control with some sort of oversight by military or by government. But this (oversight) is likely no longer the case as a result of this access denied category that is now operating. I call it a clandestine group. The technology is not in our military arsenals anywhere in the world, but it does exist, and to me that's quite disconcerting.

UFOs: It'S A Coverup

Astronaut Asks Washington To Tell Truth About Aliens

Tom Rhodes, Times of London

The U.S. Congress should grant immunity to high-level officials so they can tell the real story about alien visits to Earth, says a former astronaut.

Edgar Mitchell, who holds a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was the sixth man to walk on the moon, wants Washington to acknowledge what he believes is long-standing knowledge of extra-terrestrial life.

Mr. Mitchell says he is 90 per cent sure that many of the thousands of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, recorded since the 1940s, belong to visitors from other planets. Although some have been delusions and others natural phenomena, too many remain unexplained, he said at a conference in Connecticut yesterday.

"This suggests there are humanoids manning craft which have characteristics not in the arsenal of any nation on Earth. That is very alarming."

And Mr. Mitchell says he has witnesses -- many of them from intelligence agencies and the military -- who convinced him that the American government has covered up the truth about UFOs for 50 years.

"Many of these folks are under high-security clearances, they took oaths and they feel they cannot talk without some form of immunity," Mr. Mitchell said. "It takes a brave person to come out on something like this."

One person who has come out is Graham Hancock, a former East Africa correspondent for The Economist. He believes that NASA refuses to acknowledge aliens because of "a lingering Cold War mentality and a fear that evidence of alien life will have destabilizing political, economic and social consequences."

His new book, The Mars Mystery, postulates that life once existed on Mars but was wiped out by meteor impacts, much as the dinosaurs are thought to have been made extinct on Earth 65 million years ago.

He adds that NASA has done "laughably little" to investigate extra-terrestrial evidence, and in fact it has an official "duty to withhold ... information classified to protect the national security."

"What we see here is a mindset, not a conspiracy," writes Mr. Hancock.

"And yet to be perfectly honest, we will always have a lingering suspicion that there could be something ... going on behind the scenes, something much bigger."

Mr. Hancock and Mr. Mitchell disagree on some aspects of the theory that life existed on Mars, but both point to the holy grail of conspiracy theories, the Roswell incident -- the alleged crash of a flying saucer in New Mexico in 1947 -- as one piece of a government coverup.

Some claim the object that crashed into a farmer's field in June of that year contained the body of alien astronauts, but the U.S. military has offered several alternative accounts.

In Report: Case Closed released last year on the 50th anniversary of the Roswell crash, the U.S. air force explained that the 'extra-terrestrials' were actually crash-test dummies used in high-altitude parachute trials.

In a previous attempt to explain the incident, the air force reported that the "spaceship" wreckage found by a farmer in a field was the remains of a balloon used to monitor atmospheric evidence of Soviet nuclear tests.

"The claim that the bodies were just life-size dummies from parachute drops is an admission that there was at least something at Roswell that could be mistaken for alien bodies," writes Mr. Hancock.

"What is to be made of statements from several of the witnesses that one of the 'aliens' survived the crash and was seen moving?"

Mr. Mitchell says his witnesses can provide the truth about events such as Roswell and his campaign is bolstering other "believers."

"There's no doubt in my mind that Ed Mitchell gives us all credibility," said Walter Andrus, international director of the Mutual UFO Network, the largest organization of its kind in America.

But Mr. Mitchell said that until recently he has been leery of appearing with ufologists, widely regarded as cranks.

"I was very cautious," he said.

Although he acts as a consultant on the X-Files, the cult television series, he is scornful of "disinformation" about aliens and flying saucers that emanates from the Internet and marginal UFO organizations in America.

"The notion that there are structures on Mars or the moon is bonkers," said Mitchell. "I can attest to the latter -- I've been there. We saw no structures at the landing site and none was reflected in my helmet, as has been alleged.

But while gazing at the earth from the command module of Apollo 14, Mr. Mitchell said he did feel " an overwhelming sense of universal connectedness."

Since leaving NASA he has studied psychic and spiritual phenomena and submitted luminaries such as Uri Geller, the Israeli spoon bender, to scientific scrutiny. In his research he has come to believe in life beyond our skies.

Now, he says, "there is sufficient circumstantial evidence to warrant a scientific understanding of this area."

The sixth man to walk on the moon shares his unconventional views.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG - The aliens have landed.

Thus declared Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell on Saturday to more than 200 admirers.

"A few insiders know the truth ... and are studying the bodies that have been discovered," said Mitchell, who was the sixth man to walk on the moon.

Mitchell, who landed on the moon with Alan B. Shepard, said a "cabal" of insiders stopped briefing presidents about extraterrestrials after President Kennedy.

For those who might consider his statements farfetched, Mitchell, who has a doctorate in science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, noted that 30 years ago it was accepted that man was alone in the universe. Few people believe that now, he said.

Besides aliens, Mitchell talked about being freed of prostate cancer during a healing ceremony and his epiphany while returning from the moon.

"I had an opportunity to be a tourist," he said, going on to speak about the sensation he felt as he watched the Earth, moon and sun.

Raised as a Southern Baptist, Mitchell said his feeling of interconnectedness could not be explained by traditional religion alone. He later founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

On its Web site, the California organization says it conducts and sponsors "leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness" and that it explores "phenomena that do not necessarily fit conventional scientific models, while maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor."

The site also states that IONS, as it is known by members, is not a spiritual sect, political action group or single-cause institute.

Saturday afternoon, dozens of people made their way through rain to hear Mitchell and IONS president James O'Dea speak at the Heritage Holiday Inn in downtown St. Petersburg.

Lisa Raphael, a member of IONS who describes herself as a transformational holistic healer, said she was pleased to hear Mitchell's comments.

"Personally, what was most delightful to me was that he was more open than he has ever been, very direct about knowing that there are other forms of intelligent life in the universe and most probably that they have been here," said Ms. Raphael.