Why all the secrecy surrounding UFOs? All theories welcome!

Hey ATS'ers, watching some old research footage I realized one of the more common questions that professional investigative journalists ask, is, "Why is the USA so secretive about UFOs? What's the motivation for hiding UFOs? Why go through all the effort?"

It's a good question. Why is the USA so secretive?

Over the years I've heard a number of explanations and I don't know if any of them in isolation satisfy the question. However in conjunction I think they give a good picture of the possible motivations amongst the diverse number of groups that make up the United States government back from '40s and up to the present.

If anyone has other theories that aren't on the list, please feel free to add them!


Reasons for the secrecy surrounding UFOs:

1. Stephen Bassett theory - In the late '40s the US government didn't know what was happening when people first started seeing UFOs. The people at the top probably wanted the whole thing to go away since they were in the middle of the cold war, kept it under wraps while they were coming to grips with the situation, things got carried away and the secrecy was never lifted.
   
   
2. The 'Culture of Secrecy' theory. The US is, in general, overtly secretive. Sometimes even to ridiculous and silly extents.
   
   
3. The Hynek theory, "it can't be therefore it isn't." (1) The inability of ranking individuals in government to buy the premise that UFOs might be of extraterrestrial origin, rejecting the idea on principle rather than merit, creating a culture of dismissal that's with us even today.
   
   
4. The Fife Symington theory. It's not necessarily to lie to the public, but to diffuse the situation to lessen hysteria.
   
   
5. The Callahan / CIA theory. It would panic the public. Very similar to 3, the difference being this is preemptive. Gov. Symington held a press conference for the purpose of difussing a situation that was getting out of control. The idea behind this approach is to prevent things from getting out of control before they even start.
   
   
6. The collusion theory, as proposed by Dan Sherman, the idea that the government has been in communication with EBEs and for some end allowed aliens to do things that if disclosed would cause an uproar, possibly inciting the people try and over throw the government.
   
   
7. The Walter Smith theory. The government doesn't want to tip it's hand, because UFOs can be used for psychological warfare. IE/ A scenario where we don't know who's making the UFOs and we now the Russian's don't know who's making the UFOs so we say, "We're making the UFOs."
   
   
8. The Greg Bishop theory. Back during the Cold War there was the belief amongst US intelligence officers that spies working for Soviet Russia were taking advantage of naive UFO-investigators and ultimately manipulating them to collect information about top-secret US government projects. The idea was these spies would spread rumors that the US was hiding information about aliens and from that find US citizens sympathetic to the ruse. Resulting in otherwise patriotic Americans unwittingly spying for another government.
   

I heard this answer once:

" two words free energy "

Atmospheric energy is only one aspect of energy bonds between atoms
that can be engineered into levitation and propulsion like the UFO.

Even more interesting is the FOO might be energized VW Bugs.
Take a look at the photos.

For us land based types, energy may be devised from batteries and
various metals and an air gap. Not even using a spark.

Calculate the energy in a spark. And more so its effect in breaking
bonds, as spark plugs do to gasoline in car engines.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


Free Energy would have been my first answer as well, followed by weapons tech. TPTB are controlling the masses quite effectively right now by suppressing this tech.

Free Energy = equality of all and no more wage slavery and wars to keep lining the pockets of the few thousand elitists that are running the world.

Weapons tech and secrecy assure they have the utmost advantage to MAINTAIN above said control, under any circumstances.

Firstly, I will make a disclaimer that I do actually believe we have been, and are being visited by off world intelligences. For the secrecy part of things, this is what I believe may be the case (or part of it).

I personally think the secrecy is due to the fact that the military cannot control the situation - that they are indeed helpless to do anything about it should we object to ET's being here. So yes, I guess secrecy does have something to do with power (or lack thereof).

The other reason I believe the 'powers that be' appear to be secretive is due to good old fashioned paranoia - spread from one person to the next. We get lots of whispers and assumptions but never any hard facts, (let's face it) but a large proportion of the UFO community treat rumors like they are 100% true.

When you factor into the equation, the sheer amount of hoaxes and mis identifications, (which I believe is majority of sightings) you can't blame the military or government for saying they don't know anything about those particular cases because they would be telling the truth. No cover-up there!

Could there be tech offshoots from captured craft that 'they' wont disclose?.... possibly - but it's mainly all conjecture and paranoia if your to take many of the posts on this board at face value.

People take these conversations to many dark, dark places... what if this... what if that... and so on. Like I said, perhaps it is true but certainly not to the extent that you read in books (sensationalism sells) and that you read on this board (because sensationalism pumps up your membership points as we all know).

Humans are imaginative and like to be stimulated. UFO's and shadow governments fit the bill nicely.

Sorry if I've annoyed a few people but hey, those are my thoughts.

IRM

Edit for poor grammar!

[edit on 17/6/08 by InfaRedMan]

The world is dealing with oil and it derivatives and products and has
little concern about anything else.

Shoving it into the lie arena is what we have been fed since out break of
technologies by Germany in WWII.

What little we might have guessed is erased by lies and give more
play to protect big money interests. Germany had atomic and
neutron bombs. And the start of our UFO technology. All the TC/CFR
countries share the UFO secret.

Based on the several posts I'll add the following to the list:

1. The Steven M. Greer theory. The government is withholding this information, because it would force those in the know to reveal we have the capability to tap free energy -- thereby destroying the worlds power structure. In other words, "the greed theory."
   
   
   I've also come up with a few additional explanations:
   
   
   
2. George Marshall / FDR memo rationale. Allegedly during the Battle of Los Angeles a downed UFO was captured. FDR wrote a memo to George Marshall that reads, "This information is vital to the nation's superiority and must remain within the confines of state secrets."(1). This is a compelling explanation because if we did find this sort of technology the US would have a massive edge over other countries. So, to paraphrase, the Technical Ace-in-the-Hole theory.
   
   
3. Duke Gildenberg (AKA Hide-it-behind-the-UFO) Theory. "Every [skyhook] flight we flew generated UFO reports. In fact for awhile we were even using it as a backup tracking system. We would call up a town and ask, 'Did anyone see a UFO this afternoon? Yeah, one to the ... Okay, what direction, to the south? Okay keep an eye on it.' We allowed them to remain UFO reports, with the hope being once they got over the Soviet Union they'd still be registered as UFOs instead of as our reconnaissance balloons."(2, UFOs: The Secret Evidence, occurs at 22:50). This is similar to the Walter Smith theory, but slightly different in that rather than use UFOs simply to scare the bejebus out of the enemy (psychological warfare), it was used as a cloak to obscure black projects.
   

[edit on 5-2-2009 by Xtraeme]

hey, first time poster here

I personally believe that we are not told due to the panic it would cause. We all know about the Orson Wells broadcast and the panic that created(I know that was an invasion which is more likely to cause panic, but i still think it would cause panic if more inteligent life was to be confirmed)

We, as humans, feel secure in the knowledge that to much of an extent, we are the most intelligent species on the planet. To hear of something that is more developed than ourselves would destroy this security. People would question how we can prepare for these 'Visitors'. Would they be friendly? Can we trust them? It would cause mass civil unrest and in practice a Government is here to maintain order and civil order and to do this they may have to withhold the infomation.

The real question should be why they shouldn't keep this information so secret?

Imagine yourself in the shoes of an Admiral or General stumbling upon a crashed craft from another world, what would YOU do in such a situation?

Would you tell everyone about it? .. I certainly wouldn't, not 1947 anyways.

I agree with Stanton Friedman; in that initially informing people without second thought would be probably be an unwise and rash decision. The implications even nowadays could be considered quite hectic, but nevertheless.. if the human race is indeed being engaged by some form of intelligent life(my personal opinion); then we should have the right as a civilization to know about it. Perhaps disclosing ALL the details would be a bad idea, but the basic info should be let out.

My two cents;

Majorion

The US Military would of had the personnel, equipment and resources to collect sufficient data on the phenomena to conclude it was interstellar in origin.

Being a military organisation themselves it would not of taken much to believe many aspects of the phenomena were of a military nature - the covert nature of encounters, recon and interest in military activities on Earth, uniforms and leadership hierarchy reported of humanoids etc.

Against a "non-compliant" potential adversary we could not match in technology and with the Cold War in full swing the Military shut off all access to the field untill they had more data or some resolution to the Cold war.

It is likely the ptb still do not know where the visitors originated from or their intent, maybe they believe the alien groups that visited here are of far greater number than they actually are, perhaps the old timers that still call the shots have become afraid of the dark : )

[edit on 5-2-2009 by stringue]

reply to post by Sclee


I don't think there's a conspiracy at play here, even though I do believe a great deal of information is hidden from the public. Rather I think the people at the top convinced themselves there was nothing to the phenomenon (ie/ the Hynek theory).

Look at what happened after Project Sign. Ruppelt handed the Estimate of the Situation (EOTS) to his commanding officers, they completely disagreed with the conclusion, and born out of the conflict was Project Grudge. According to members of the team Grudge was aptly named in that it was given the directive to look for more down to earth explanations for the sightings despite the original Sign research pointing to the ET hypothesis.

Once that was set in motion, the few remaining people on the project as military personnel, did as directed.

By stating their position on UFOs that set in motion the "ridicule" of anyone who differed in opinion.

This ridicule factor became self-perpetuating. If you look at the Condon Report it's easy to see that Condon was driven by a) fear of alienation from fellow scientists and b) complete disdain for the subject probably in part due to societal indoctrination leading him to believe there was nothing to the subject in the first place. Despite having a bias against the subject, and being very loud about his opinion, when asked to study the subject he said he would remain impartial. No sooner had he said that he drafted the 'Trick Memo':

"The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that, to the public, it would appear a totally objective study but, to the scientific community, would present the image of a group of non-believers trying their best to be objective but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer."

So think about it this way. Following Kenneth Arnold's sighting, those at the top of government were given strong signals for nearly 20 years that there was nothing to the UFO phenomenon. This was then reinforced by what was supposed to be an unbiased scientific study conducted by a prominent scientist at a reputable university.

That's why I think the answer to the question of "Why all the secrecy?" is rather complex.

At the start the answer was, "It can't be therefore it isn't." (The Hynek Theory) Or to quote James McDonald, "We have managed to so let our preconceptions block serious consideration of the possibility that some form of alien technology is operating within our midst that we have succeeded in simply ignoring the facts." Then the opinion of those top few officials percolated out to the mainstream and the scientific establishment. 'Group think' kicked-in reinforcing the notion that only idiots and crazies believed such nonsense. Thus ridicule was born.

Along the way I'm sure there were Generals who discovered information that proved to there satisfaction there was something to the UFO talk. Events like the 1956 RAF Lakenheath / Bentwaters sighting, 1957 RB-47 incident, etc. The problem is admitting UFOs exist would also be an admission that the government was wrong or, worse, that officials had lied. It would also beg the question, "Do they pose a threat?" It would bring stories like the 1967/1975 ICBM missile shutdown to the foreground of public commentary. So by admitting the truth the government ran the risk of not only panicking the country, but facing a potentially huge backlash for what citizens would consider bureaucratic incompetence of the highest order.

Looking at all that it's not a conspiracy so much as it is people covering their asses and trying to prevent the system from falling apart on itself.

[edit on 5-2-2009 by Xtraeme]

The culture of secrecy is the best explanation IMHO. From the POV of the military, the public simply has no need to know, in matters that could affect national security. Secrecy about UFOs from governments and the military seems to infuriate many ATSers, I think it's perfectly understandable.

Other reasons, more or less plausible:

1. Reporting failure and lack of knowledge is not easy and is always avoided, especially a humiliating failure to the duty of the world's most advanced military force:
-Failure to protect airspace against incursions, failure to track, intercept, or shoot down UFOs.
-Failure to understand their origin, motivation, physics.

2. Fear of ridicule if any officially announced UFO event is later discovered to be a misidentification or a hoax.

3. Secrecy makes it possible to propagate disinformation about the secret back engineered alien technology (TR3B, etc).

4. Reluctance to admit cover-up and lies during the last 60 years.

The guy at the end of the disclosure project witness testemony DVD says its free energy.

I think this is the reason too.

reply to post by Majorion

Imagine yourself in the shoes of an Admiral or General stumbling upon a crashed craft from another world, what would YOU do in such a situation?

Obviously a knee-jerk release to the press wouldn't be the ideal approach, but to answer the question, "why shouldn't [they] keep this information so secret?"

Imagine a scenario where the human race is attacked by an extrasolar civilization. If the government is incapable of addressing that sort of military problem, and it systematically clouds the issue, it's defaulted on even the pretense of protecting its people. Should that ever turn out to be the case people won't only strip those in power of their positions, but their lives.

People fundamentally want to be treated with the respect and dignity to be able to decide for themselves the best course for their lives. The longer any official with that kind of knowledge obscures the issue the more likely people will retaliate.

It's in the best interest of those who govern to disclose what's known (and I'm not saying they know much if anything) simply to lessen accountability.

[edit on 5-2-2009 by Xtraeme]

I simply see it as "Those who control would no longer have control"

Churches/religion would no longer have control over people's psychological being.

Big Oil/Industry would no longer have control over people's consumption requirements.

Government would no longer have control over people's fear and reactive actions.

my 2c

Originally posted by Xtraeme
It's in the best interest of those who govern to disclose what's known

I was in agreement with you up until this statement.

Wrong, it's fairly obvious that it's not in the government's best interest to disclose such information. If that were true, then don't you agree that [they] would have told us already?

Originally posted by Majorion

Originally posted by Xtraeme
It's in the best interest of those who govern to disclose what's known

Wrong, it's fairly obvious that it's not in the government's best interest to disclose such information. If that were true, then don't you agree that [they] would have told us already?

The sword cuts both ways. The longer a government official hides information of a deleterious nature from their constituents, the more likely they're going to want to continue to obscure it for fear of their own safety.

I suppose I should have added a caveat. It's in the best interest of an official to be upfront, because eventually the lie will catch up to them. And when it does it's probably gonna get ugly.

Originally posted by Xtraeme
eventually the lie will catch up to them.

Perhaps, but doubtful.

Consider the super imposed secrecy involved for over 60 years, and consider the amount of whackos, con-artists, and outright sensationalists; in such an unfortunate reality of a situation.. I find it very hard to believe that the ultra hidden truth about the UFO phenomenon will come back to bite the PTB in the ass. It's just too well buried, and barely anyone is helping in this field.

A word of advice if you wanna be optimistic; I'd keep my out for Mr. Nick Pope of the UK's MoD, he seems to be making more and more controversial statements each time.

BTW Xtraeme; Star and Flag for this interesting thread.

Thank you

Majorion

If there is a cover-up of extraterrestrial visitation, it may be because contact between humans and aliens is inherently dangerous. Look at history; as Europeans colonized the world, more indigenous peoples died by disease than by violence.

Originally posted by SaviorComplex
it may be because contact between humans and aliens is inherently dangerous

Interesting points SC, this is as close as I've ever seen you come to some sort of recognition of a cover up btw. Absolutely no pun intended.

But could you elaborate further as a skeptic on the statement you just made?.. are you suggesting that we(humans) may be somehow prone to extraterrestrials or vice versa? .. and why/how would this serve as a reason for cover up?

Originally posted by SaviorComplex
If there is a cover-up of extraterrestrial visitation, it may be because contact between humans and aliens is inherently dangerous. Look at history; as Europeans colonized the world, more indigenous peoples died by disease than by violence.

That's more of an explanation for non-intervention than it is secrecy. It's an interesting theory. HG Wells would approve!