Tag: Richard Doty

Obama CIA Director Brennan On UFOs

Article by Jazz Shaw                                    December 17, 2020                                     (hotair.com)

• In an interview with Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, John O. Brennan, CIA Director under President Obama, the subject quickly turned to the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force and possible explanations for what these UFOs are and where they might come from. (see video below at 6:45 minute mark) Brennan took the question seriously and hinted that the CIA has pondered the subject and aren’t ruling anything out.

• The interview (below) covers a lot more material than just UFOs, but the way Brennan answered the UAP question is of particular interest. Brennan begins the answer with a nervous laugh. He doesn’t sound entirely comfortable and goes on to string together a very large number of words that seem to dance around the question before delivering the final shot. He races through a few more qualifiers before suggesting the possibility that the origin of the UAP is something that “some might say constitutes a different form of life.” Those were some impressive linguistic backflips to avoid saying the word “aliens” or “extraterrestrials,” weren’t they? But what else could he be talking about?

• Cutting through the double talk, Brennan essentially says, “I think it’s a bit presumptuous and arrogant for us to believe that there’s no other form of life anywhere in the entire universe. What that (form) might be is subject to a lot of different views. But I think some of the phenomena we’re going to be seeing …that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and …involve some type of activity that …constitutes a different form of life.

• As the former Director of the CIA, Brennan held (and likely still holds) one of the highest possible security clearances in the country. And as those that follow ufology already know, the CIA has had a long and deep interest in the subject of UFOs going back to the earliest days of the agency. They have frequently been shown to have trafficked in information and frequently, disinformation.

• The CIA worked hand-in-hand with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations in Project Blue Book disinformation campaign, and with the efforts of AFOSI disinformation agent Richard Doty. Doty’s efforts at blaming aliens as a cover for other classified operations eventually led to the death of a scientist named Paul Bennewitz. So the CIA has had their hand in this game for a long time. If they know anything about UFOs that’s being withheld from the public, it’s a fair bet that Brennan knows about it. But hearing him “suggest” that they might involve “a different form of life” is intriguing, to say the least.

 

       John O. Brennan

A rather intriguing bit of UFO news popped up this week that may give us yet another peek into what the government

                      Richard Doty

knows about the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or at least thinks it knows. John O. Brennan, CIA Director under President Obama, gave an interview to Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution. Part of their conversation turned to the subject of the UAP Task Force and possible explanations for what these UFOs are and where they might come from. Rather than clamming up or simply laughing it off, Brennan took the question seriously. While he clearly wasn’t about to make some Earth-shattering announcement, he did offer some speculation which at least seems to hint at the idea that the CIA has pondered the subject and they aren’t ruling anything out.

COWEN: At the end of all that sifting and interpreting, what do you think is the most likely hypothesis?

BRENNAN: [laughs] I don’t know. When people talk about it, is there other life besides what’s in the States, in the world, the globe? Life is defined in many different ways. I think it’s a bit presumptuous and arrogant for us to believe that there’s no other form of life anywhere in the entire universe. What that might be is subject to a lot of different views.

              Paul Bennewitz

But I think some of the phenomena we’re going to be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life.

You can read or listen to the interview at Medium and it’s probably worth your time if you’re interested in this subject. They cover a lot more material than just UFOs, but the way Brennan answered the UAP question is of particular interest to me. Just from the transcript above, you can see that he begins the answer with a laugh, but it sounds more like a nervous laugh than any sort of mocking tone. He doesn’t sound entirely comfortable and goes on to string together a very large number of words that seem to dance around the question before delivering the final shot.

I was particularly taken by the way he talked about “something we don’t yet understand.” He then races through a few more qualifiers before suggesting the possibility that the origin of the UAP is something that “some might say constitutes a different form of life.” Those were some impressive linguistic backflips to avoid saying the word “aliens” or “extraterrestrials,” weren’t they? But what else could he be talking about?

 

1 hour video – Tyler Cowan’s interview with CIA Chief John Brennan,
discussing UAPs at 6:45 (‘Mercatus Center’ YouTube)

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Forced & Faked Alien “Abductions” Were Conducted by the CIA Says Renowned Researcher

Article by Arjun Walia                            May 28, 2020                           (collective-evolution.com)

• Dr. Jacques Vallee, the French astrophysicist who co-developed the first computerized map of Mars for NASA in 1963 and was a close associate Project Blue Book’s J. Allen Hynek, has written several books on the UFO enigma. Vallee has investigated an uncountable amount of case reports regarding UFOs and extraterrestrial beings. He’s been a major player in bringing the UFO phenomenon to the mainstream public. Vallee knows that something real and quite possibly extraterrestrial and inter-dimensional is going on. He is currently a venture capitalist living in San Francisco.

• Credible information regarding UFO sightings, crash retrievals, contact experiences with ‘aliens’, and possible bodies are out there to be examined. But there is a lot of disinformation out there as well. It is well documented that for years intelligence agency and government operatives infiltrated the UFO community for the purpose of deceiving researchers – and for one simple reason: to hide the truth. These disinformation initiatives still seem to be in operation today. On top of disinformation, there has long been an official campaign of ridicule and secrecy as well. Vallee is one of many who have written about the evidence of well-constructed hoaxes and media manipulations designed to mislead UFO researchers and the public.

• In one of his latest books, Forbidden Science 4, Vallee makes an entry for March 26, 1992 writing: “I have secured a document confirming that the CIA simulated UFO abductions in Latin America (Brazil and Argentina) as psychological warfare experiments.” In the book, Vallee notes that Air Force Colonel Ron Blackburn told Vallee in May 1990 that he was “convinced the government is working on UFOs”. Blackburn said that the chances were “pretty good” that the US government was “fooling” UFO witnesses “by special effects developed by psychological warfare”. “Suppose you shine a week infrared laser into people’s eyes,” said Blackburn. “[I]t won’t hurt them but may induce a hallucinatory state. Experiments have been done where you send a microwave beam through someone’s brain; you pick up the transmitted energy pattern. You can influence people this way, even make them hear things. Holograms have been used too.”

• In 1992, Vallee wrote that he had received a document that the CIA had been involved with staging UFO (alien abductions). There are many examples and evidence that point to staged abductions happening for reasons unknown, and that it’s also continuing today. It’s not surprising if you’ve looked into the CIA’s technologically advanced black budget world with programs like MK Ultra intended to manipulate the perception of the masses.

• In his book, Vallee also mentions retired Air Force Special investigations officer Richard Doty. Doty’s job in the Air Force was to spread disinformation about the UFO subject. Doty has admitted to infiltrating UFO circles along with his colleagues to ‘feed’ ufologists and journalists lies and half-truths so that they would never understand the ‘real truth’.

• Retired university professor Dr. David Jacobs hypnotically regressed people who claimed to have had ET abduction experiences. Thousands of these ‘abductees’ share the same story of forced impregnation and ‘hybrid’ children, among other things. Could some of these forced abduction experiments simply be deep black government projects? Yes. But there are many who have claimed to have had non-threatening or even pleasant encounters with alien beings. Still, even these ‘abductees’ often sensed a military component to the encounter.

• Could the story about President Eisenhower’s meeting with aliens and the secret deal to allow a certain amount of human abductions in exchange for technology also be fabricated? Could all reported alien abductions be military operations? It’s not likely.

 

Throughout history, the field of ufology and the examination of the extraterrestrial hypothesis has, without a doubt, been overcome with a plethora of

                      Dr. Jacques Vallee

disinformation. Those who have dived into the depths of ufology know this best, as it’s well documented that ‘outsiders’ from intelligence agencies and governments have infiltrated the field for the purposes of deceiving researchers and people who are interested in the topic for one simple reason, to keep them

          Dr. David Jacobs

away from the truth. On top of these disinformation campaigns, which still seem to be in operation today, there has long been an “official campaign of ridicule and secrecy” (Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Ex CIA director) associated with the subject. This is why I encourage all those reading who dive into this subject to stick with facts, data, and evidence rather than entertain what seem to be outlandish claims that in no way, at all, can be verified.

I’d like to draw your attention to Dr. Jacques Vallee, who holds a master’s degree in astrophysics and a Ph.D. in computer science. The subject of UFOs first attracted his attention as an astronomer in Paris. He subsequently became a close associate of Project Blue Book’s J. Allen Hynek and has written several books on the UFO enigma. He is currently a venture capitalist living in San Francisco. Vallée co-developed the first computerized map of Mars for NASA in 1963. He later worked on the network information center for the ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet, as a staff engineer of SRI International’s Augmentation Research Center under Douglas Engelbart.

                     Richard Doty

He’s a researcher that’s had a very interesting life, to say the least, with regards to researching the topic of UFOs. He’s come into contact with and had meetings with most experts in the field, politicians from around the world, high ranking military personnel and much more. His journey into the subject has led him to investigate an uncountable amount of case reports regarding UFOs and supposed extraterrestrial beings, and he’s been a major player with regards to bringing the mainstream scientific community forward to look at the evidence and data that’s involved with such a serious subject, that, in his time, was largely ridiculed. He is an important reason why the phenomenon has gained as much credibility as it has today.

Valle is one of many who have written about and documented the startling evidence that well-constructed hoaxes and media manipulations have misled UFO researchers, diverting them from the UFO phenomenon itself, what’s really going on.

In one of his latest books, Forbidden Science 4, he shares a record of his private study into unexplained phenomena between 1990 and the end of the millennium, during which he was traveling around the global pursuing his professional work as a high-technology investor. It’s a bit of a diary, documenting his experiences and encounters/meetings as he tries to examine and explore the phenomenon.

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Pentagon’s ‘Real Men in Black’ Investigated Tom DeLonge’s UFO Videos

Listen to “E211 Pentagon's 'Real Men in Black' Investigated Tom DeLonge's UFO Videos” on Spreaker.

Article by Tim McMillan                          December 20, 2019                           (vice.com)

• For the first time, spokesperson for the Secretary of Defense’s office of public affairs, Susan Gough, revealed that the Air Force Office of Special Investigations conducted an investigation of the two Navy videos, “Go Fast,” and “Gimbal”, that were captured off of the East Coast by Navy cockpit video in 2015. These two videos were released by the New York Times in 2017 along with a third FLIR1 ‘Tic Tac’ video taken by Navy fliers off of the coast of San Diego in 2004. Tom Delonge’s ‘To the Stars Academy’ were instrumental in releasing these video. (see videos below)

• While the Air Force’s Special Investigations affirmed that the “Original Classification Authority” for the UFO videos was the U.S. Navy and that Navy retains custody of the source videos, the Air Force also confirmed that the videos were not classified.

• For many in the UFO community, this comes as especially significant considering the nefarious history of the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) when it comes to UFOs. Federal statute gives the AFOSI authority outside of the traditional military chain of command to conduct criminal investigative, counterintelligence, and protective service operations worldwide for the entire Department of Defense. Many consider the AF Special Investigators to be the original “Men in Black”.

• The AFOSI is notorious for seeding disinformation and denial of UFOs since the 1940’s. A 1997 CIA study (see here) detailed how in the 1950s and 1960s, the CIA and AFOSI promoted UFOs to cover up the then-classified U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance planes. The agencies claimed that half of the UFO sightings back then were of top secret military spy planes. “This led the Air Force to make misleading and deceptive statements to the public…”

• It was the Air Force that conducted the only official investigation into UFOs with Project Blue Book in the 1950s and 60s. One of the most famous examples of Air Force deception is former AFOSI agent Richard Doty who admitted to seeding a cornucopia of misinformation on UFOs in the 1980s in an attempt to safeguard classified UFO technology.

• For over a year, the DoD admitted to investigating UFOs under the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Last September, the Pentagon announced that all UFO matters would now be handled by the Under Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs office. Enter Susan Gough who then changed the DoD’s position, saying that the AATIP was not related to UFOs after all, but rather it investigated advanced aerospace weapons systems and future technology projections of adversarial Earth-bound foreign nations, “… to create a center of expertise on advanced aerospace technologies”.

• [Editor’s Note]  It appears that the U.S. Air Force is still playing games, denying that the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program had anything to do with UFOs.  Now the Air Force has established a public relations office charged with disseminating more disinformation.

And by the way, if you read the entire article, Ebens are not the same as Greys. Ebens are a highly advanced species from the planet Serpo who retrieved one of their own from a UFO crash in the 1950’s, and then worked with government and military officials to organize a cultural exchange to send a dozen Americans to Serpo in the 1960’s, with most of them returning to Earth in the 1970’s. On the other hand, Greys are highly sophisticated android beings that typically make contact with Earthlings on behalf of their creators, the negative Arcturian Blonde Nordics that are allied with the Draco Reptilians. The two alien species look somewhat similar, but are distinctly different beings.

 

Since reports first surfaced in 2017 that the U.S. Navy had been encountering UFOs, the Air Force has been remarkably quiet when it comes to mysterious objects that may be flying around the skies.

             Susan Gough

Given the Air Force is America’s principal aerial and space warfare branch, and in the 1950s and 60s it conducted the

                           Richard Doty

only official investigation into UFOs with Project Blue Book , many UFOlogists have found the Air Force’s recent aversion to discussing the topic to be particularly odd especially when considering that the Navy has been rather vocal on the issue.

Yet after months of deafening silence, in an official statement, the Pentagon suddenly throw the Air Force into the mix with recent UFO reports. More excitingly, it also mentioned one of the most notorious agencies in all of UFO lore.

Susan Gough, a spokesperson for the Secretary of Defense’s office of public affairs, said the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations looked into the release of two videos originally filmed in 2015.

            Grey extraterrestrial

According to the DoD, the objects shown in these videos, originally released by Tom DeLonge’s To the Stars Academy, are considered “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” or “UAP.”

“The two 2015 videos appeared in the New York Times in December 2017. At that time, AFOSI conducted an investigation, focusing on the classification of the information in the video,” said Gough.

     Eben extraterrestrial

Gough’s mention of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations looking into the popular “Go Fast,” and “Gimbal” videos is intriguing given it appears to be the first time the Pentagon has revealed the Air Force has indeed been involved in the Navy’s UFO encounters.

For many in the UFO community, this comes as especially significant and concerning news considering AFOSI has a long and nefarious history when it comes to UFOs, with many claiming AFOSI are the “real men in black.”

 

                  

 

 

 

1:08 minute US Navy ‘Gimbal’ UFO video from Jan 20, 2015 (TIME YouTube)

 

36 second US Navy ‘Go Fast’ UFO video from 2015 (USA TODAY YouTube)

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Ex Air Force Officer Describes Four Types of Extraterrestrial Beings the Government Knows About

Listen to “E115 10-6-19 Ex Air Force Officer Describes Four Types of Extraterrestrial Beings the Government Knows About” on Spreaker.

Article by Arjun Walia                      September 23, 2019                   (collective-evolution.com)

• It’s no secret that UFOs have been a topic of concern, as academic publications, radar trackings, and millions of pages of documents have been released from multiple governments detailing numerous encounters with these objects. There are innumerable photos and even authenticated Navy videos of UFOs. Even NASA astronauts have confirmed that UFOs exist. UFOs are no longer taboo within the mainstream, but the idea that some of them are extraterrestrial still seems to be a touchy subject.

• Richard Doty is a retired Air Force Special Investigations Officer. Decades ago, his job was to infiltrate UFO circles and feed ufologists and journalists lies and half-truths so that they would never understand the real truth. In an interview that Dr. Steven Greer conducted with Doty (see 1:34:46 minute video below), Doty reveals four different extraterrestrial species that have visited this planet which the US government is aware of.

• Says Doty: “There were four types of crafts that they showed us, four types of extraterrestrials, and they never explained to us where they got the pictures of these extraterrestrials but there were actually pictures of these weird looking creatures that showed on the film that were extraterrestrials from some other location different from where the Ebens came from.”

• Doty continues: “One (extraterrestrial) was looking like an insect, had huge eyes, very large head, a small body. They had two different appendages on their arms, they had basically two hands on each arm. They had several joints in their legs, and they had a bubble-type appendage in the front and a lump or something in the back, that was one of them. They were about the size of an average human.”

• “The second one was a very tall thing, very very thin humanoid that had long arms. Arms reached down probably to its knees, they had regular hands. Their faces were very very thin. They were almost human looking, unless you really really study them and got real close to them. They didn’t have any hair, they had cat like eyes.”

• “And then there was a third creature… It looked something like the Eben but it was bigger, it had a bigger body. I found out later in a briefing that I had, in 1995, that that was a genetically engineered creature that the Ebens made… They knew it was genetically engineered, and I don’t know how, they didn’t ever tell us how.” [Note:  Eben is an acronym for ‘extraterrestrial biological entity’, for a species that comes from the planet Serpo, had visited the Earth in the 40’s and 50’s, and participated in a cultural exchange with a dozen American humans going to Serpo in the 60’s and returning in the 70’s.]

• Doty describes the Ebens as “about four feet tall” and that they “didn’t appear to have any ears. “They had an indentation for the nose. They had very big eyes. They had a very tight fitting suit, almost looked like they were nude, but they actually had a very thin but tight fitting suit on. No thumbs just four fingers, suction devices on their tips of their fingers. One of them had a head apparatus on it, maybe a helmet or some kind of an ear phone, or some type of device that they were communicating with the craft or with something else, and they found a number of different objects in the craft. They had a piece of what they thought was plexiglass that they kept for years before they figured out it was an energy device for the craft.”

• Jack Kasher, Ph.D, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Nebraska, once said “there is another way (to travel through space), whether it’s wormholes or warping space. There’s got to be a way to generate energy so that you can pull it out of the vacuum, and the fact that [extraterrestrials are] here shows us that they found a way.” Doty explains that multiple craft have been shown to use zero-point energy – meaning they’ve found a way to extract energy from the vacuum of space.

• Paul Hellyer, the Canadian Minister of National Defense during the 1960s, confirms that he is aware that “At least four known alien species have been visiting Earth for thousands of years.” According to Hellyer, the extraterrestrials “… have different agendas… Nearly all are benign and benevolent. They want to help us. [But] there may be one or two species which do not. … They come from various places. … There are some in our star system. There are actually extraterrestrials who live on… one of the moons of Saturn. There are others on Venus, and some on Mars. And they may be interacting between themselves… because there is what is called a federation of these people.”

 

Richard Doty is a retired Air Force Special investigations officer (AFSIO), and his job was to spread disinformation about the UFO subject during his time with the Air Force. Spreading disinformation about the reality of UFOs is no secret, and in Doty’s case, he admitted to infiltrating UFO circles along with his colleagues to feed ufologists and journalists lies and half truths so that they would never understand any real truth. This is something I believe is still occurring within the UFO community–multiple disinformation campaigns that are now perhaps more sophisticated as well as a number of frauds who are sharing their ‘experiences’ when they’ve really had done. In fact, it was decades ago when the very first Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, stated to The New York Times: “It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings. Behind the scenes, high ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.”

  illustration of an ‘Eben’

Several astronauts have been quite outspoken about UFOs, like Apollo 14 astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell and high ranking military/government personnel from around the world as well. On top of all of this, the simple fact that many people have had their own experiences has also sparked interest in the subject. There are also multiple videos that’ve been released by governments around the world, as a couple came from the Pentagon over the past few years via the To The Stars Academy. Here’s a picture that the Canadian Air Force released in the 60s. It’s no secret that UFOs have been a topic of concern, as academic publications, radar trackings, and millions of pages of documents have been released from multiple governments detailing numerous interesting encounters with these objects.

So where does the extraterrestrial question come into play? It comes from hundreds, if not thousands, of people like the ones mentioned above. Credible sources with verified backgrounds have alluded to the fact that these objects are indeed extraterrestrial, and that this can be verified.

                    Dr. Steven Greer

“Yes there have been crashed craft, and bodies recovered.” – Dr. Edgar Mitchell

Not long ago, a leaked document exposed notes taken by legendary scientist Dr. Eric Davis during a meeting he had with Admiral Thomas Ray Wilson, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, regarding extraterrestrial space crafts.

This is why it’s always interesting to hear such people talk about actual extraterrestrial entities rather than ‘UFOs.’ UFOs are no longer taboo within the mainstream, but the idea that some of them are extraterrestrial still seems to be a touchy subject.

According to Richard Doty, in the interview below with Dr. Steven Greer, maker of the hit documentary that’s currently on Netflix called “Unacknowledged,” the US government is aware of at least four different extraterrestrial species that’ve visited this planet.

1:34:46 minute video of Richard Doty
interviewed by Dr. Steven Greer (Dr. Steven Greer YouTube)

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Terrifying UFO Encounter That Led to $20 Million Lawsuit Remains a Mystery

by Robbie Graham                   April 5, 2019                      (mysteriousuniverse.org)

• On the evening of December 29, 1980, Betty Cash (52) and her friend Vickie Landrum (57), along with Vickie’s grandson, Colby Landrum (6), went out for a drive on two lane road on the outskirts of the little town of Huffman, near Houston, Texas. As they rounded a bend, they saw a huge, blindingly bright, unidentified flying object hovering over the road, intermittently emitting flames downward. Afraid, they stopped the car. Betty stepped out of the car in attempt to get a better look at the object. Soon, the object lifted up and slowly flew away. Then they saw what they assumed were military helicopters trying to surround the object to either to pursue it, or perhaps escort it. Afterward, they all went home. This has become known as the ‘Cash-Landrum Incident’.

• After she dropped Vickie and Colby off, Betty went home and went to bed with a terrible headache. This was the beginning of a lengthy illness that resulted in her hospitalization. Vickie and Colby also reported flu-like symptoms, milder than Betty’s problems. Betty’s hair loss and flu-like symptoms caused the physicians to check her for radiation exposure, but the results were negative. The cause of her health problems was not determined.

• Due to Betty’s lingering health problems, she suspected that her encounter with the strange object on the night of December 29th may have been the cause. Betty reported the incident to the National UFO Reporting Center. This led to news coverage and a civilian investigation.

• In 1981, Betty wrote to Texas senators who advised her to file a complaint at Bergstrom Air Force Base near Austin, Texas. Military investigators interviewed the witnesses, but concluded that it was ‘improbable’ that the event occurred. US Congressional Representative Ron Wyden asked for an investigation into whether US aircraft had been involved in the incident. The Department of the Army investigated, yet found no indication to support the ladies’ claims that any military helicopters had been involved.

• The ladies hired attorney Peter Gersten to file a $20M lawsuit against the government. Gersten stated that the chances of winning were “slim and none,” but he wanted to use the suit as a means of forcing the government to disclose UFO documents. The judge dismissed the case on August 21, 1986 for lack of evidence. The complainants had failed to prove that US aircraft were involved in the incident or that it was responsible for causing the alleged injuries.

• Next, the media got hold of it. ABC’s Good Morning America gave it national exposure as a UFO story. The press presented a simplified narrative of the incident, and before long, the witnesses were telling a homogenized version based on what they’d read about their own story. It also attracted other less-credible witnesses to seeing the UFO/helicopters that night. The Aerial Research Phenomena Organization (APRO) decided to investigate the incident, only to have one of its own employees sell the story to a tabloid. Others such as the deputy director of the Mutual UFO Network John F. Schuessler, William Moore and Richard Doty used the Cash-Landrum story to promote their own agendas.

• A leading expert on UFO mysteries, legends, and hoaxes, Curt Collins, took on the Cash-Landrum case. But the more he researched, the more he discovered that the real events had been obscured by misinformation and rumors to the point that the real story began to vanish. But after learning more about the requirements for equipment and personnel, the military helicopters aspect of the story was implausible.

• Then Vickie Landrum was quoted as trying to comfort her grandson, Colby, by telling him that the UFO was “Jesus”, and “He will not hurt us”. Religious zealots have clung to the UFO phenomenon since ‘extraterrestrials’ first came into the public limelight in 1947. Since then, god-like aliens have become a fundamental UFO belief in some circles. Collins warns that we should not waste time hoping that “parents” from space will come down and solve our problems.

• Collins concedes that we may never know exactly what happened on that Texas roadway the night of Dec. 29, 1980. More information has surfaced over the years from government documents to researchers’ archived files and correspondence, and there’s probably more to come. “It’s a fascinating UFO puzzle.”

 

One of the world’s leading experts on the Cash-Landrum case is Curt Collins, the author behind Blue Blurry Lines, a website focused on UFO mysteries, legends, and hoaxes. In 2015, Curt was on the investigative team that exposed the BeWitness “alien” photo fiasco, the Roswell Slides Research Group; his detailed accounting of this exposé was featured in my 2017 book UFOs: Reframing the Debate. More recently, Curt launched The Saucers That Time Forgot with Claude Falkstrom, focused on unearthing “tales that UFO history has overlooked or would rather forget.” Curt has spent many years retrospectively investigating the Cash-Landrum incident. Here, Curt separates the fact from the fiction as he talks to me about this fascinating yet hugely problematic case.

     Vickie Landrum (left) and Betty Cash

RG: Summarise the Cash-Landrum incident for us.

According to the story that surfaced, Betty Cash (52) and her friend Vickie Landrum (57) were out for a drive on the evening of December 29, 1980. Along with them was Vickie’s grandson, Colby Landrum, just shy of seven years old. The location was near Houston, Texas, on a two-lane country road in a sparsely populated area on the outskirts of the little town of Huffman. They rounded a bend and found a huge, blindingly bright, unidentified flying object hovering over the road. It intermittently emitted flames downward, and the witnesses were afraid and stopped. Betty stepped out of the car in attempt to get a better look at the object, but the other two quickly returned to the car. Shortly afterwards, the object lifted up and slowly flew away. The witnesses saw helicopters following it, and they had the impression they were military helicopters trying to surround the object, either to pursue it, or perhaps escort it. Once the aircraft had passed, they continued their drive home. Betty dropped Vickie and Colby off, and went home, where she went to bed with a terrible headache, which was the beginning of a lengthy illness that resulted in her hospitalization. Vickie and Colby also had flu-like symptoms and reported similar, but milder problems than Betty’s. None of them initially connected their illness with the UFO sighting, but, due to Betty’s lingering problems, came to suspect it may have been the cause.

RG: You’ve spent many years of your life researching the Cash-Landrum incident; what is it about this case in particular that you find so compelling? Why is it so significant?

CC: I was interested in the whole of UFO history, but drawn to focus the C-L story due to its reputation for being one of the best-documented and credible cases. The reported involvement of the military made me think that there must be further evidence to be uncovered, from declassified documents or perhaps from new witnesses such as retired helicopter pilots. However, as I dug in, I learned that the real events have been obscured by misinformation and rumors to the point that the real story has begun to vanish. A great stroke of luck was finding Christian Lambright who had independently interviewed Vickie Landrum twice in 1985, uncovering important differences in the witnesses account from the way ufologists were packaging the UFO story. This fueled my desire to dig beneath the mythology to find exactly what could be documented about the case.

RG: Did the US government ever provide an official explanation for the incident?

CC: No. There has never been any tangible proof that there actually was an incident.

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