ALIENS?
No official investigation neither protocol for a contact.
by Milton W. Hourcade
Hourcade, co-founder of C.I.O.V.I. the pioneer civilian
institution for the investigation of the UFO subject in Uruguay in 1958,
investigated and studied nearly two hundred cases, until the closing of the
activities of the Center in 2008, when he proposed the creation of the
UAPSG-GEFAI, a very selective international group of scientists and experts in
the Unusual Aerial Phenomena (UAP) which has been working since then.
Writer of four books related to UFOs (the last one in
English), Hourcade is a frequent lecturer and also has been interviewed
countless times by the media, in Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico, Spain and the USA.
A dedicated student of the UAP, a voracious reader, he
regularly shares news in the fields of Physics, Aeronautics, Astronautics and
Meteorology, as well as his ideas and intuitions.
----------------
This article is the result of reading the book “UFOs –
myths, conspiracies, and realities” by Colonel John B. Alexander, Ph.D., Thomas Dunne Books, New York, 2012, 323 pages; and recent
declarations made by the Senior Astronomer for SETI, Seth Shostak, as reported
by Tom Metcalfe, Live Science
Contributor on November 16, 2016.
It is important
to note that all the interviews made by Col. Alexander were done in the decade of 1990,
when the UFO subject still could attract the attention of some people working
in important positions within US federal agencies. If the same inquiry were done today, probably
less US federal agencies would be considered as possibly dealing with the UFO
subject.
The findings
made by Col. Alexander are of his own responsibility and I couldn’t find any
corroboration from another source.
______________________
Who is Col. John B. ALEXANDER?
Colonel John B. Alexander published in 1980 an article in
the US Army’s “Military Review”, under the title “The New Mental Battlefield”.
After retiring from the Army in 1988, Col. Alexander joined the Los Alamos
National Laboratories and began working with Janet Morris, the Research
Director of the US Global Strategy Council, chaired by Dr. Ray Cline, former
Deputy Director of the CIA.
From that time comes the proposal of Col. Alexander of
what he calls “non lethal weapons”.
In the nineties Col. Alexander and Retired Major General
Albert N. Stubblebine (former Director of US Army Intelligence and Security
Command) were on the board of a “remote viewing” company called PSI-TECH.
If any reader is interested to know more about “remote
viewing” I recommend the book “Reading the Enemy’s Mind – Inside Star Gate
America’s Psychic Espionage Program” written by Paul H. Smith, published by
Tom Doherty Association, New York, 2005, 592 pages; and “Remote Viewing
Secrets – A Handbook” by Joseph McMoneagle, Hampton Roads Publishing
Company, Inc., Charlottsville, Virginia, 2000, 296 pages.
Col. Alexander has shown along his life a special
interest in exotic subjects like Extra
Sensorial Perception (ESP), UFOs, psychotronics (which could be related to the
“abduction” phenomenon), anti-gravity devices, near-death experiments,
psychology warfare (PSYOPS – psychological operations) and non-lethal weaponry.
A friend with Dr. Jacques F. Vallée, Col. Alexander
reports that he created the Advanced Theoretical Physics Project (ATP) which
–to my knowledge has nothing to do with Physics, in spite of its name.
There is no longer official UFO investigation
in the USA
The purpose of the ATP was to find if there were within
the many official organizations of the US Government, any of them dealing with the
UFO subject, which would like to have helped to pass the information to the
public. (page 16)
The ATP occupied the spacious office of Col. Alexander in
Tysons Corner, Virginia, quite near from where I lived many years, but I never
knew where that office was.
The ATP membership was highly restricted. Col. Alexander established
the following rules:
--By invitation only (nobody was allowed to come that we
didn’t know)
--Participant background and interest had to be
demonstrated
--Referrals could be made but I reserved the right of
acceptance
--Minimum security clearances were TS-SCI at SI-TK no
exceptions
--There would be no written documents about the meetings
--Participants had to cover their own costs
To the readers not familiarized with these abbreviations,
TS-SCI refers to a clearance of Top Secret-Sensitive Compartmented Information,
and SI-TK means Special Intelligence -Talent Keyhole. Therefore those who
belonged to the ATP were extremely selected people.
Once again, on page 16 of his book, Col. Alexander says
about the purpose of the ATP: “The initial desired outcome would be to
determine who knew what about UFOs”.
It is also interesting to know the conditions in which
the group met. They used a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF)
which is described as: “rooms that are built to detailed specifications to
prevent anyone from eavesdropping via electronic surveillance techniques. There
are no external portals and the entire facility is enmeshed in wires that
prevent intrusion.” (page 16).
After a while, Col. Alexander –who was well related with
the high echelons of the military— reports that he started a round of visits
and talks with the heads of the most important official organizations mainly
dealing with intelligence at different levels.
He comments: “The key assumption across all agencies was that somebody else was charged with
responsibility for UFOS.”
And here comes the conclusion he arrived:
“The ultimate
answer appears to be that nobody does have that responsibility. While this
notion runs counter to all of the conspiracy theorist’s proclamations, that was
the bottom line.” (page 17).
He interviewed Ben Rich, an aerospace engineer and
president of the Lockheed-Martin company Skunk-Works, in Area 51. Also Dr.
Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb; Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer,
creator of many flying machines, the latest ones the SpaceShip-I and Space-Ship
II that will take tourists to near de Space.
But Col. Alexander also had meetings with authorities at
NORAD, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI), the Army Science Board (ASB), and even Russian astronomer Dr.Félix
Zigel.
At the end of every chapter of his book, Col. Alexander
includes a Summary.
After his tour for different agencies, this is what he
has to say:
“This chapter is
important as it describe how over several years my exploits took me to the
senior levels of the military, and included briefing the director of the CIA,
DIA, NSA, plus may other officials in various agencies, industries, and
government science boards. The outcome of such meetings almost always included
being introduced to other influential people.........
What
I learned in my personal, face-to-face meetings runs counter to the wild tales
that abound in conspiracy theory literature. However, unlike those conspiracy
theory proponents, I am the only personal who has discussed this sensitive
topic with each of those listed, and many, many others like them. Worth noting
is that even at the most senior levels, some officials shared the conventional
mythology of the general population regarding UFOs. Despite their high-level
positions, they all seemed to think that someone else was responsible for the
topic.” (page 39).
Therefore, it is clear that none of all these government
agencies is dealing with the UFO subject. After the BlueBook was closed in 1969
following the University of Colorado “Scientific Study of Unidentified
Flying Objects” (also known as the Condon Report, after Dr. Edward U.
Condon who was the Director of the study), no one else has been responsible to
investigate or study this subject.
As you realize, NASA is not mentioned in the list named
by Col. Alexander, and the reason is simply this:
“The
story behind what happened related to UFOs while President Carter was in the
White House is more interesting than his sighting. According to the official
records, his executive office asked NASA to get involved. Uncharacteristically
for any agency of the Executive Branch, they did not accept the request. That
is nearly unheard of, but points to critical problems when pre-established
scientific boundaries are questioned. Obviously NASA pointed to the Condon Report
for justification.” (page 102).
There is no protocol incase aliens make
contact with us
If the lack of a specific program about UFOs developed by
an agency is something surprising and discouraging for some people, it is worst
to know that the USA has no protocol indicating what to do if some day aliens
make contact with us.
As almost everybody knows, Seth Shostak is an American
astronomer, currently Senior Astronomer for the SETI Institute. This is the
private organization that deals with the Search for Extra Terrestrial
Intelligence, through the use of radio-telescopes and some other instruments
and technologies.
Recently, Shostak made very important declarations
related to the lack of a real protocol to eventually deal with another
intelligence that could make contact with us.
First drawn in the 1980s, this set of protocols acted as
guidelines for Soviet and American astronomers looking for alien transmissions
in signals received with radio telescopes.
"They say, 'If you pick up a signal, check it out...tel everybody...and don't broadcast any replies without international consultation', whatever that means"
And he added: “But that’s all that the protocols say, and they have no force of law. The United Nations took a copy of the early protocols and put them in a file drawer somewhere, and that’s as official as they ever got.”
In other words, science has empty hands related to the UFO subject, and empty hands if there were a contact made by another civilization: what to do?, what could be our response?, or there should be no response whatsoever?
And the main question that is behind this blind approach to issues that really matter is: when someone, somewhere, is going to take the initiative to change this situation?
This policy of empty hands and empty responsibility is very similar with criminal situations where the answers and measures to put in place, are taken after something terrible has happened and not before, revealing a lack of care and precaution.
In the same interview Shostak said that he
is “not aware of any government-level
plans or established procedures in case of an alien contact, whatever form it
might take.”
Firefighters have a Guide
So far we know there is no agency or organization of the
US government dealing with the Unusual Aerial Phenomena –as many investigators
and students prefer to call them— to specifically avoid the mythical equation
UFO = ET ship.
There is no an elaborated protocol of any kind
considering the possible contact made with us by other intelligence.
But, since 1992 there has been a “Fire officer’s Guide
to Disaster Control”. The authors of this Guide are William M. Kramer,
Ph.D., and Charles W. Bahme, J.D.
The authors considered that as first responders,
firefighters have to be aware of the dangers that could follow the landing or
fall of a ship coming from space, belonging to an unknown civilization.
In other words, here the firefighters could eventually
face an area of disaster where quick measures have to be taken.
Given
that situation, the first thing the authors take into account is the Extra
Terrestrial Exposure Law (14 C.F.R- 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
That has been the popular name for regulations adopted by
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1969 to formalize its "policy, responsibility and authority to guard the Earth against any harmful contamination ... resulting from personnel, spacecraft and other property returning to the Earth after landing on or coming within the atmospheric envlope of a celestial body" " Implemented
before the Apollo 11 mission, it provided the legal authority for a quarantine period for the returning astronauts.
The regulation defined "extra
terrestrially exposed" as
"...the state or condition of any person, property,
animal or other form of life or matter whatever, who or which has (1) Touched
directly or come within the atmospheric envelope of any other celestial body;
or (2) Touched directly or been in close proximity (or been exposed indirectly
to) any person, property, animal or other form of life or matter who or which
has been extra terrestrially exposed by virtue of subparagraph (1) of this
paragraph.”
Having this law in mind, the authors pay the price to
think that UFOs have an extra-terrestrial origin, and from that they develop
their ideas and say:
UFOs - Emergency Action
“In view of the fact that many
UFOlogists believe that we are fast approaching a time when overt landings of
UFOs will become less remarkable, and in the absence of our knowing whether
their visits are friendly or hostile, it would not be remiss to give some
thought to the part that fire departments might play in the event of the
unexpected arrival of UFOs in their communities. For example, what would be
your course of action as an incident commander at the scene of a school ground
where a UFO has crashed into the boiler room, rupturing a fuel line, and
ignition has occurred in the spilling oil, endangering the occupants of the
craft who are trapped in the wreckage? If your rescue attempts are successful,
and two of the five small alien creatures are injured but still alive, how do
you dispose of the dead and treat the survivors? How would the presence of
children on the school grounds affect your actions? What persons and agencies
would be notified?
The authors have never read any advice on these matters. The following admonition was printed on the inside front jacket of Frank Edward's book on flying saucers:
The authors have never read any advice on these matters. The following admonition was printed on the inside front jacket of Frank Edward's book on flying saucers:
WARNING
"Near approaches of UFOs can
be harmful to human beings. Do not stand under a UFO that is hovering at low
altitude. Do not touch or attempt to touch a UFO that has landed. In either
case the safe thing to do is to get away from there very quickly and let the
military take over. There is a possibility of radiation danger and there are
known cases where persons have been burned by rays emanating from UFOs. Don't
take chances With UFOs!"
|
In view of the federal law (cited
earlier) empowering NASA's administrator to impound, without a hearing, anyone
who touches a UFO or its occupants, it would be inadvisable to make personal
contact unless you are willing to submit to NASA's quarantine requirements,
should the law be invoked.
Besides the possible physical effects of approaching a UFO, e.g. burns, radiation, etc., there may be psychological effects produced by force fields that could induce a hypnotic state in the viewer, loss of consciousness, memory relapse, and submission to the occupants. Jacques Vallee, author of "The Invisible College" cautions that we should consider psychic effects, such as space-time distortions experienced by percipients of craft-like devices which appear to fade away--dematerialize--and then reappear; of alien, strange voices or thoughts that may affect involuntary changes in the manner in which witnesses may react in such circumstances.(72)”.
As we can see, once again, the
authors are confronted with a lack of “any advice on this matter” as they say.
Therefore they tried to give some general orientations to the fire fighters
officers to avoid unnecessary dangers and minimize the consequences of such a
landing.
But at least they mention a law that
continues to be valid, and give some cautions to be applied.
A very precise manual should also be
written to deal specifically with these possible situations, and personally I
think that it must be elaborated by scientists in conjunction with the
military.
