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Debunking Versus Counterintelligence: Reflections of a Pro-Ufologist


  
  
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 Things to beware of in 1997:
 
 Prophetic visions, epecially those which cooincide with operations
 of HAARP and similar installations world wide.
  
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 The following is an article that was published in the HUFON
 Journal, 1992.
 
 Debunking Versus Counterintelligence:
 Reflections of a Pro-Ufologist
 
 by Richard D. Butler
 
 To the pro-ufologist, debunking and counterintelligence (CI)
 efforts are seen as the greatest hindrances to legitimate
 research. The two terms are frequently used as synonyms. In fact,
 they are two very distinct operations. Debunking has two sources:
 the U.S. government and civilians.
 
 The civilian debunkers are usually professional academics,  whose
 motivationis principally reactionary protection against a
 challenge to their world view. They see UFOs, and belief in UFOs
 and even organized study of UFOs as a threat to their own reality
 system. The protective strategy is, in psychological terms, the
 well-known process called "denial." We see it in alcoholics, and
 we see it in UFO-bashers. It is also quite an efficient way to
 handle complex data and hypotheses. Simply deny it, make a joke,
 and move on and away from the challenge. Ridicule is an almost
 essential part of the denial process. The debunker strives to
 convince not only his audience that the subject is nonsense, but
 he must also convince himself. The self-imposed wall of denial is
 enforced by ridicule. There is nothing new about the debunking
 process. The history of science is, in a sense, the history of
 debunking.
 
 Clearly, every important advance in science has been met with
 ridicule. A recent example is the development of the atomic bomb.
 Top scientists were skeptical that the bomb would work. President
 Roosevelt's military aide stated that, as an expert in explosives,
 he could assure the President that the atomic bomb would never,
 and could never, explode! Yet in the early morning hours over the
 Trinity Site, a tiny flower of hell blossomed in the desert. The
 impossible had become awesomely real. Physicist J. Robert
 Oppenheimer was heard intoning, "Behold I become death, a
 shatterer of worlds." This was an apt epitaph for the debunkers,
 whose psychological world was shattered. Debunking has been with
 us since the first debunker laughed at the man who decided to move
 out of the cave. In a particularly difficult field of research
 like ufology, the debunker must be accepted as something that
 simply comes with the territory. We must groan, but accept the old
 saying, "If you can9t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.3
 
 The second category of debunking is the official U.S. government
 version. This brings us into the deep waters of
 counterintelligence.  CI is defined as specific and planned
 activities conducted to destroy the effectiveness of a foreign
 intelligence operation. There are various sub-operations within
 the heading of CI. The one of most importance to this discussion
 is counterespionage, which is those activities carried out to
 neutralize another intelligence gathering group. Its operational
 parameters include penetration, deception, and manipulation of
 those suspected of conducting espionage activities. And it's all
 perfectly legal: presidential executive orders have made it so.
 Because these activities are necessarily covert, not much is known
 about them by the general public.
 
 CI operations are staffed by highly skilled and dedicated
 personnel.  Their goal is to deny an enemy information which could
 be used to  destroy our lives, property, and way of life. But how
 does the UFO  business tie in? National Intelligence is the key
 term. This is defined  as any intelligence information produced by
 the CIA (or other equivalent agency) that bears on the broad
 aspects of national policy and the national security of the United
 States. This intelligence is then analyzed to determine if a
 threat condition exists. If the answer is "yes," a Threat Analysis
 Report is prepared. The report identifies and locates the threat,
 and estimates the potential damage levels which the threat could
 inflict. The Threat Analysis Report is sent to the National
 Security Council (NSC) for review. The Council, in turn, advises
 the President with respect to formulation and integration of
 domestic, foreign, and military policies. Once the threat is
 confirmed by the NSC, various agencies will be tasked to perform
 both the intelligence and counterintelligence functions, as well
 as accelerated defensive weapons programs.
 
 It is time to look at the UFO intelligence gathering program. Most
 ufologists will probably be shocked by the nature and dimensions
 of this operation. Every ufologist and UFO organization in the
 world is an overt intelligence-gathering asset of the United
 States. Your job as a ufologist is to monitor all UFO activities,
 including sightings, landings and abductions. This information is
 published, providing an intelligence channel back into the system.
 
 The CIA has the mission of collecting all published civilian UFO
 intelligence data. An Air Force public information release (still
 in use) tells us that their investigation of UFOs ended with the
 deactivation of Project Blue Book. Further, it says that UFO
 investigations have been turned over to academic institutions and
 civilian UFO research organizations. In practice, this means that
 information of genuine scientific value will not be overlooked. In
 other words, Blue Book never really ended, it just changed hands.
 And, whether you know it or not, or like it or not, you are part
 of the intelligence-gathering network, feeding straight to the
 CIA's UFO files. But this particular brand of intelligence data is
 perfectly open to the public, in the form of UFO books, journals
 and public meetings. And this presents the government with a
 unique problem. As a UFO researcher, you are simultaneously
 gathering data for the government, and trying to break through the
 wall of secrecy to discover what the government knows. You are
 spying for them, and spying on them. By spying on your own
 government and, in fact, doing so in a very aggressive manner, you
 automatically trigger the counter-intelligence machinery.
 
 The task of screwing you up, meaning the official CI operation
 against ufologists, is assigned to Security and Counter-
 intelligence Special Operations departments within various
 intelligence agencies. Note the three main mission criteria: (1)
 Denial to ufologists of the government's offensive and defensive
 weapons capabilities; (2) Denial to ufologists of the government's
 intelligence gathering capabilities and level of analysis; and (3)
 Prevention of direct or indirect Psychological Warfare effect. Are
 these measures justifiable? In the balance are our rights as U.S.
 citizens versus the degradation of America's national security
 caused by release of the UFO information? With this in mind, let's
 review the three criteria in detail. Item (1) is fairly obvious.
 If a potential enemy learns our weapons technology, he can develop
 countermeasures. This in turn would render the weapons system
 useless, and make us vulnerable to attack. So the answer is a
 clear and resounding "No!" to release. Item (2) is the reverse
 side of item (1). We are gathering information in order to make
 the enemy's weapons ineffective. Here is a purely hypothetical
 example. Suppose we are successful through FOIA, or through what
 you must admit amounts to standard espionage techniques which we
 call "UFO research," and discover that the government has photos
 of a UFO hovering above a submarine. Moreover, the information we
 have obtained tells us that the submarine is at a depth of 50
 fathoms. We also get pictures taken at 100 and 200 fathoms, and
 quickly publish all the facts. The Soviet submarine commanders
 would get the message at once. The U.S. anti-submarine
 surveillance technology is only capable of imaging down to 200
 fathoms. So they would design attack strategies in which they
 would cruise without worry at depths below that level. Bad news
 for our side, and it puts ufologists on the wrong end of the logic
 of item (2). Item (3) is by far the most complex issue.
 Psychological Warfare is accomplished by two main methods. First,
 direct aggressive efforts aimed at the enemy, and second, indirect
 damage caused by release of information regarding the enemy's
 capabilities and intentions. The purpose of "Psy War" is to erode
 the will of the enemy nation, and it can have a devastating impact
 on military effectiveness. A battle lost in the mind usually
 translates directly to military defeat.
 
 But the effects of Psy War go beyond military targets. Both
 government and private institutions can be severely damaged.  An
 example is the stock market crash which took place just before
 the Gulf War. This is minor compared with the psychological shock
 waves that would be produced by release of certain UFO
 information. In fact, the harm would almost certainly be
 unprecedented in terms of damage levels, with major impact on
 basic religious and economic institutions.
 
 The major methods employed by UFO counterintelligence are
 debunking and disinformation. Debunking can be as simple as using
 the technique of over-simplification of analysis. For example, the
 time-honored quick answer to a UFO sighting, such as "weather
 balloon," or "swamp gas." Disinformation, however, should be our
 main area of concern. It uses a technique known in the trade as
 "plausible denial." One way to view this is that the information
 is 2% truth and 98% nonsense, of some mixture of the two, but
 never the whole truth. It must appear legitimate on the surface,
 but have enough bunk in it to send you off in a totally wrong
 direction.
 
 By far the most powerful weapon in the UFO counter-intelligence
 arsenal is the ufologists themselves. A former CI officer once
 remarked to me about a prominent New York City ufologist, "If he
 didn't exist, we'd have to invent him." There is nothing that
 counterintelligence operators appreciate more than a gullible
 ufologist i.e. born again lesbian lizards from Antares, seven-foot
 alien cockroaches with hyperactive libidos, etc. The result is
 that the credibility of the entire UFO research community is
 debased. Little wonder that the press treats the subject as a
 joke. That's what the CI people work so hard to accomplish. The
 "aliens are eating us" crowd is the answer to the CI prayers. This
 brings us to the question of whether the government is justified
 in withholding certain information from the public based in its
 psychological impact alone. The first NSC meeting was held in
 September, 1947. One of the main topics is rumored to have been
 the retrieval of a crashed alien aircraft at Roswell. We might
 know if this rumor is true, but the minutes of that meeting have
 been removed by the CIA from the National Archives. Interestingly,
 they were removed in February, 1979. This is when intelligence
 operatives discovered that a book telling the truth about the
 Roswell crash was about to be published. It then became necessary
 to clean up the "paper trail," among other CI moves to protect the
 Roswell secret. The NSC had to consider the Roswell UFO crash only
 eight years after the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" broadcast,
 in which panic ensued when the public thought Martians were
 invading. Little wonder that President Truman kept mum. Was this a
 sound policy? I believe it was in 1947, and on through to today.
 At least in the sense that the public was not ready for the
 stunning revelation of aliens in our midst. But the public will
 never be ready! Nor is there any way to prepare the public.
 Therefore, further concealment is futile, as well as morally
 unjustifiable.
 
 In terms of national security, when a government is forced to
 treat its own populace as an enemy, then that government is
 already defeated and has lost its right to exist. Abductees are
 the only directly affected portion of the population. Granted, it
 is a very tiny fraction. But have we decided to write them off, to
 list them as an acceptable loss in this shadowy but nevertheless
 very real War of the Worlds?
 
 In closing, I wish to express my sympathy for those in government
 who are faced with these terrible decisions. I know you desire to
 do the right thing. To my colleagues in ufology, my advice is: be
 very careful what you ask for, because sometimes your wishes are
 granted. If your fervent wishes are granted, our whole
 civilization will suddenly have a new, revolutionary set of ideas
 about who and what we are. Can you take responsibility for the
 cataclysm? Although I have used the term "threat" in this
 discussion, it should be obvious that if the aliens are truly
 hostile, we would have learned that the very, very hard way long
 ago.
 
 That there are great changes in store for mankind is certain. How
 we as a people handle those changes will determine the level of
 loss to our social and spiritual realities. There is much to lose
 but equally as much to gain. Or, as the alien may have said, "Lose
 a planet, gain a galaxy."
 
 Think about it.
 
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