Page Content (OCR)
Small wonder there's so much paranoia in the UFO field. These mystery men have posed as Air Force officers, well-known investigators, and members of the amateur UFO organizations, delib- erately sowing confusion and fear in their wake. There are even reliable reports describing entities who resembled exactly the men they were imitating (doppelgangers). On several occasions these doppelgangers have visited witnesses who had been previously interviewed by the author, creating considerable confusion. The Colorado University study tried to shrug off the Heflin photos because of the ‘internal inconsistencies* in his story: his visits from nonexistent military officers. Similar episodes have led to extended feuds between amateur investigators and groups, each believing that the other has been warning witnesses not to talk to them* In many of these episodes the MIB appear on the scene immediately after the sightings, before the witness has had a chance to report it to anyone. They often flourish an identification card and announce they are from Washington or the CIA (any real CIA agent who went around openly identifying himself as such would soon be standing in an unemployment line). When they use the Air Force ploy, they have the uncanny ability to use the name of an existing officer, but they change their rank. Thus a Colonel Higgins may turn up in a flap area where an actual sergeant named Higgins is stationed nearby. Adding to the nonsense and confusion, we have the dreary face that ufology has alway attracted eccentric personalities, and a few (very few) of these situations have proven to be their doing. One quasi-scientific UFO group maintains an office in Washington, D.C., and some of their members are fond of waving their membership cards about authoritatively, giving the false impression that they represent a government agency. The whole mess began in Tacoma in 1947. Since then the MIB manifestations have created a body of myth and lore fingering the federal government as the sinister silencer of UFO witnesses and censor of UFO news in the press. (There is no UFO censorship, as the publication of this hook attests.) The hardcore UFO buffs maintain these myths, however. They ignore the massive evidence found in the other frames of reference which points to the puzzling existence of the parahuman mimics of man who have always been engaged in mischievous - and sometimes a ee ee Mrs. Coral Lorenzen, who has been running the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) since 1952, devoted a chapter of her book VFOs over the Americas to the CIA's purportedly sinister interest in the subject. Her evidence was a combination of hearsay, speculation, coincidences, classic MIB manipulations, and the uneasy feeling that APRO was being watched. It is cot surprising, of course, that some of the UFO organizations have occasionally been monitored by the FBI and other agencies, since the leading proponents of UFO beliefs have made a habit of publicly attacking the government and the military establishment on radio and television. Some UFO publications do border on the subversive. In the 1950s a strong Communist influence was visible, and some major groups collapsed when they turned more political than ufological. In the 1960s ufology swung in the other direction as members of the extreme right wing embraced the flying saucer cause. In 1969 the long-suffering Air Force got out of the UFO business by closing down Project Blue Book, its halfhearted flying saucer agency, thus eliminating the favourite target of the UFO cultists* wrath. malicious - shenanigans.