Having taken a look at the FBI’s files on both George Adamski and George Van Tassel, I thought I would share with you the reasons why some of the other “Contactees” of the 1950s and 1960s were carefully watched by government agencies. We’ll begin with yet another FBI file on a certain friend of the Space Brothers. The man: George Hunt Williamson. It’s intriguing to note that the primary reason why Williamson had a file on him was because he was suspected of smuggling ancient artifacts over the Mexico border and into the United States. Something like that is all but guaranteed to ensure a file will be opened on you. For a while the FBI deeply pondered on whether or not they should get further involved in the pursuit of a potential crime that had occurred outside of its jurisdiction and in another country – Mexico – but finally dropped the matter; rather fortunately, it must be said, for Williamson. There is one particularly curious aspect of this particular affair: a number of the relevant documents are heavily censored according to category 1 of the Freedom of Information Act. Notably, 1 covers nothing less than matters that may have a potential effect on US national security. That strongly suggests there was something about Williamson that we still don’t know of to this very day.

Then, there’s the FBI file on Truman Bethurum, the man who, in the early 1950s, claimed to have met (on more than a few occasions) with a hot alien babe known as “Aura Rhanes.” As for why the FBI took so much interest in the Bethurum, the answer is very simple. The government was already keeping tabs on Bethurum, for one particularly interesting reason: he had made certain statements linking his experiences with Aura Rhanes to matters of a communist nature. In Bethurum’s own words: “Two or three fellows who had sons in Korea and who read a lot in the newspapers about the Communist underground in this country, were convinced in their own minds that I was, if making contact with anyone at all, making it with enemy agents. They even went so far as to tell me belligerently that they intended to get guns and follow me nights, and if they caught up me having intercourse with any people from planes, airships of any kind, they’d blast me and those people too.” And, as an amusing aside, it also led the FBI to refer Aura Rhanes in its files as a “ravishing woman commandant”! Even the Bureau, it seems, was infected by Aura’s intergalactic hotness!

Aura Rhanes, the alien who got Truman Bethurum’s blood-pressure in a dangerously high state!

George King’s Aetherius Society, which was also very much Contactee-driven from the late-1950s onward, was the subject of a secret file created by an arm of the U.K. police force called Special Branch. That file is now in the public domain, thanks to the terms of the U.K.’s Freedom of Information Act. The file does not show that Special Branch was worried about alien encounters. Rather, the papers demonstrate that Special Branch was concerned by the fact that the Aetherius Society was allying itself with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which was created in 1the 1950s. Special Branch certainly viewed King as, in their words, a “crank.” Special Branch  came to quickly realize that King was highly motivated when it came to getting the word out regarding his views on nuclear weapons and the Russians. That alone was certainly a matter of deep concern to the authorities. The surveillance, hardly surprisingly, continued at a steady and secret pace. A Special Branch document from 1959 provides the following on the Aetherius Society: “It crusades for the suspension of the H-bomb tests and supports the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. It took part in what became known as the 1958 Aldermaston March and holds public meetings from time to time. One was held on 23^rd August 1959 when 200 persons formed a ‘quiet, amused’ audience. It was covered by Special Branch.” Special Branch eventually discontinued its surveillance of the Aetherius Society. The strange affair was finally over.

George King’s biggest nightmare: a nuclear war

In politics, it’s always easier to admit to things and make promises when one is out of office. That’s especially true on the national level and one field that suffers from these “I didn’t reveal the secrets when I was in office but there’s a lot of them and I’ll do better next time” pronouncements is UFOs and UAPs. Think John Podesta, who claimed he regrated not digging deeper into UFOs and offer some disclosure while working for President Bill Clinton, promised to do better if Hillary Clinton was elected and still hasn’t revealed anything. Now comes John Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence under former President Donald Trump. He had this to say during a recent interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo (summarized by the Washington Examiner):

“There are a lot more sightings than have been made public. Some of those have been declassified. And when we talk about sightings, we are talking about objects that have seen by Navy or Air Force pilots, or have been picked up by satellite imagery that frankly engage in actions that are difficult to explain. Movements that are hard to replicate that we don’t have the technology for. Or traveling at speeds that exceed the sound barrier without a sonic boom.”

Former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe is referring to incidents like the Navy Tic Tac UFO sightings, which all happened before he became Director of National Intelligence in May 2020. Nothing new here.

“When we talk about sightings, the other thing I will tell you is, it’s not just a pilot or just a satellite, or some intelligence collection. Usually we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things, and … some of these are unexplained phenomenon, and there is actually quite a few more than have been made public.”

There’s Ratcliffe’s “I knew about this but didn’t tell you when I could have” confession. Then comes the “hint about aliens without admitting anything” moment.

“Weather can cause disturbances, visual disturbances. Sometimes we wonder whether or not our adversaries have technologies that are a little bit further down the road than we thought or than we realized. But there are instances where we don’t have good explanations for some of the things that we have seen.”

Why would the former Director of National Intelligence be hinting about extraterrestrials now? He’s out of office and has no chance of getting his old position back for at least four years. Ratcliffe was also a member of the House of Representatives. Could he be planning another run so he can get back to Congress, become the next Harry Reid and influence disclosure?

Former Senator Harry Reid

Sorry, that’s not it either. Ratcliffe’s hints are coming ahead of the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill that former President Trump signed into law in December, which contained the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 which stated that the Intelligence Committee must reveal any threats posed by “unidentified aerial phenomena” and submit them “in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.” Being the former director, Ratcliffe ‘should’ known what’s in the report. If it’s a real revelation, he can take credit for it since it was committed to under his brief watch. If it has nothing new, he can blame it on the new administration and its director for withholding information. It’s a win-win for Ratcliffe … and nothing as usual for the American UFO-disclosure-seeking public.

Unless there’s really some disclosure in it. The report is supposed to be released by June 1, but anything with “national security” in its content often has a way of being withheld or heavily redacted. All we can do is wait … and elect officials who will really do what they promise, at least when it comes to UFO/UAP disclosure.

Would David Duchovny consider running?

Does an area become a UFO hotspot because it has a lot of UFOs or a lot of UFO spotters? A case could be made for the latter in Argentina, where a dedicated group of UFO/UAP hunters added another to their collection with a recording of a “ufo flash” over Pie de Palo in the west-central Argentine province of San Juan. Is it time for the Guardianes del Cielo (Guardians of the Sky) Cuyano to go international?

“Hello friends!!! We told you that a couple of weeks ago, as a result of some complaints received from people in the Caucete area regarding some curious lights that can be observed in the well-known Cerro Pie de Palo in the province of San Juan, we began to make a series of vigil around the area which we came across this event that the locals told us … We are in the process of investigation soon we will upload more of these events.”

A video was uploaded on YouTube recently (watch it here) by the Guardianes del Cielo Cuyano of lights over Pie de Palo which they recorded after residents concerned about them received no explanations from officials. This was quickly picked up by San Juan media, which left it to the Guardians to speculate what the UFOs might be. And speculate they did!

“The supposed UFO that appears in the images, would fall into the category of” ufo-flash “. Ships of unknown origin that appear and disappear for brief moments. One more mystery in this great enigma that is the probable presence of alien life on the planetary ground.”

Before you skeptically scoff at the “alien life” assessment, Tiempo de San Juan beat you to it. Prior to reporting on this sighting, a reporter interviewed members of the Guardianes back in December 2020. The group began in 2011 when current president Jorge “Toto” Pérez and some friends met weekly on a Pocitana mountain to eat barbecue. After seeing a white “watermelon seed” UFO repeatedly, they dedicated themselves to studying unexplained aerial phenomena, eventually forming Guardianes del Cielo Cuyano to follow up on the sightings of others in the region. They purchased an image intensifier – a low-light device used in night-vision goggles – and set up a Facebook group, which attracted members who helped expand the group. A satellite tracking system helps them distinguish human-made aircraft from unidentified flying objects or anomalies. As a result, they have become a go-to group for UFO sightings in Argentina.

“It is seen that there is a greater maturity about this phenomenon, they no longer take it so hard.”

As we are seeing in the U.S., the search for UFO is gaining “maturity” as they’re reported in the mainstream media and slowly confirmed by the government. Argentina is one of the countries that has a dedicated government department for UFOs, and the Guardianes del Cielo Cuyano are playing an important part in “declassifying” documents. Unfortunately, while they have a good record of types of UFOs, neither the video nor the article explain why they suspect “alien life” for the recent UFOs in Pie de Palo.

On the subject of the cause of UFO hotspots, Elentrios.com also reported in December on the increase in sightings in Argentina and notes that there are a number of groups like Guardianes del Cielo Cuyano in that country, and the clear skies from less traffic during the pandemic lockdown coupled with the number of people with more time on their hands to look up has certainly resulted in more sightings. But … these groups were there before pandemic … which means the UFOs were there as well.

Is there something that attracts UFOs to Argentina? Are the Guardianes del Cielo Cuyano correct to speculate on and search for aliens on the ground summoning them? We’ll keep our eyes on the group for further information.

Lying off the coast of Uruguay, in South America, is a tiny speck of rock called Isla de Lobos, meaning “Island of the Fur Seals.” It is nothing more than a desolate slash of rock patrolled by its titular seals and not much to see except a spire reaching up towards the grey sky that is the island’s lighthouse, which at 66 meters in height is among the tallest lighthouses in the world. Although it is now fully automated, there was a time when a garrison of men was required to live in isolation at this remote place in order to operate it, and our story here comes from that era. Here we get into a strange alien encounter from a faraway, remote place, which has never really been adequately explained.

In October of 1972, a total of five men were stationed at the Isla de Lobos lighthouse, working a shift of 15 days, after which another crew would come in and take over. At the time the lighthouse was operated by the Navy, and stationed there were Corporal Juan Fuentes Figueroa, enlisted men Jose Gomez and Hector Gimenez, a telegraph operator Jose Lima, and the sub-officer in charge, Francisco Cascudo. On the evening of the 28^th, at around 10 PM Corporal Fuentes went out on a routine patrol to check on the power generators at the back of the facility, but his attention was caught by some strange lights in the sky hovering near the top of the generator building, seemingly right above a terrace that was situated up there about 20 feet above the ground. The lights looked to him like car headlights, although this was of course impossible, and they seemed to be flashing and oscillating between a mix of white, yellow and violet.

Isla de Lobos lighthouse

Fuentes was so unsettled by the sight that he went back to get his pistol, oddly not telling any of the other men what was going on. When he went back outside to approach the generator building again, this time he could see that there was an object up there apparently landed on the terrace, escribed as a metallic, copper-colored object shaped like an inverted bowl, standing on some sort of landing gear and with a rotating antenna of some sort on its top. What’s more, in the eerie illumination of the lights there was what looked to be a figure standing beside the object, and a second and third figure were descending from the craft. They seemed to be wearing some sort of dark suits akin to diving suits, their heads appearing somewhat elongated and oversized, and one seemed to be noticeably taller than the others, although Fuentes could not make out a lot of details. He then realized that they had turned towards him and seemed to be very aware that he was there.

At this time, Fuentes was overcome with fear and panic, and raised his pistol to point it up at the craft. It was at this point that he felt a strange sensation throughout his body like a vibration that sent his hair standing up on end, and found that he was unable to move, as if paralyzed, all while a voice boomed through his head that said “Don’t shoot because it is useless.” After this, the strange entities went back up into their ship, seemingly walking up steps of some kind, appearing to be pulling themselves up with handrails, after which the craft closed and began to lift off as its landing legs retracted telescopically. It hovered up in the air momentarily, then silently sped off at breathtaking speed with a flash of bright light like a fireball. At this point, Fuentes ran back to the others and told them what had happened, but no one believed him. Considering he was the superior officer and no one believed him, this came as a shock, but it would seem that at least one of the men, Francisco Cascudo, thought it was odd enough to pass it along to a superior officer.

Not long after their tour at the lighthouse ended, Fuentes was called aside by high-ranking officials, who interviewed him at length on what he had allegedly seen. Fuentes would claim that there were also two men who he believed to be from the U.S. Embassy lurking in the background taking notes, and who were later identified as officers of the “Spatial Affair Service.” Fuentes was also shown various pictures of different UFOs and asked to point out which were most similar to what he had witnessed and then dismissed. At no point was he ever directly questioned by the mysterious Americans, but he could see them excitedly talking to his interrogators in another room, making it obvious they were very interested in his sighting. After this, the case came to the attention of the Uruguayan UFO Investigation Center, who subjected Fuentes to some psychological tests and came to the conclusion that he was a solid witness, described as “sincere, uncomplicated and simple, with no tendency to fabrication or fantasy and lacking an average imagination.” It was also noted that Fuentes had no previous interest in or knowledge of UFOs, and they came to the conclusion that he at least truly believed he had seen what he claimed. Sub-officer Cascudo would back this up, describing Fuentes as a “simple and honest man, incapable of inventing a story of this nature.”

Skeptics of the case have speculated that Fuentes merely saw a helicopter and its occupants, who had panicked and flew off when he had aimed his pistol, but how does this explain the mysterious paralysis or the voice in his head? Also, why would a trained Navy man mistake a helicopter for a UFO, especially since he was painted as an honest man with no propensity towards jumping to far out claims? The case of the Isla de Lobos UFO encounter has never been solved, and we are left to wonder whether this was all tall tales, misidentification, or perhaps a true bizarre phenomenon at work.

Sightings of what have become known as “Black Helicopters” and “Phantom Helicopters” have been reported for decades. There’s no doubt, however, that the 1970s was the period when things really took off. In the latter part of 1973, a series of distinctly unusual events began to quietly unfold above the green fields and rolling hills of northern England that subsequently triggered a strange, and still-ongoing operation coordinated by an elite division of the British Police Force. Remarkably, that operation was (and, to an extent, still is) designed to carefully monitor the activities of certain key players within the public UFO research arena in Britain. And it all began with something known as the phantom helicopter. Of the varied elements that make up what is popularly known as the “UFO Phenomenon,”” there can be few so strange as the phantom helicopter and its close relative, the even-more-sinister black helicopter. For at least four decades, numerous people throughout the world have reported seeing helicopters, very often completely black in color and with no identifying markings, in areas that have been subjected to intense UFO activity. This has led a number of commentators to speculate that the helicopters are operated by covert groups from within the military-industrial complex and that they are involved in a surreptitious UFO monitoring program.

One of the earliest episodes on record dates from 11 October 1966 and concerns a helicopter-UFO event at the Wanaque Reservoir, New Jersey. The encounter began with the sighting of a disc-shaped UFO by a number of policemen as it passed over the reservoir. Emitting a dazzling white light, the object then headed towards an area of forest where it was eventually lost from view. As soon as the UFO had vanished, however, at least ten aircraft, as well as six or seven helicopters suddenly appeared on the scene. The point of origin of the vehicles was never determined. On the night of 26 September 1974, a father and son, Walter and Dan Richley, saw a strange object hovering high above their farm at Lynchburg, Ohio. As there was a powerful searchlight mounted on the family’s pick-up truck, Walter and Dan decided – “as an experiment” – to try to get a better view of this object that was taking so much interest in their farm.

As the beam of light touched the UFO, the Richleys found themselves bathed in an equally bright beam of red light that emanated from the UFO. Frightened out of their wits, both father and son ran for the safety of their home. As they did so, the UFO began to retreat over the horizon until it finally disappeared from view. At 11.00 p.m. on the following night, Dan was sitting up in bed, reading, when he was suddenly jolted by a loud noise coming from outdoors. On running to the widow he was amazed to see a large helicopter descending. “I then got dad out of bed,” said Dan. Mr. Richley quickly assessed the meaning of the helicopter’s presence: “I think I put my light beam on something that was a military secret. That ‘copter came here to warn me.” The UFO researcher Leonard Stringfield, who conducted a personal investigation of the case, asked Walter Richley if he had received an apology or re-numeration for the damage caused by the helicopter as it blew debris around his yard. ““No, and I’m not about to press it; I’d rather forget it,” replied Richley.

Since at least 1967, the United States has been beset by a disturbing phenomenon: cattle mutilations. Exactly who, or indeed what, is responsible for the widespread killing of cattle under very bizarre circumstances is far from clear. On many occasions, farmers, police officers, and veterinarians throughout North America have come across cases where cattle have been subjected to unusual surgical procedures, such as having organs expertly removed and being completely drained of blood – and also in the exact locations where both UFO and phantom helicopter activity is prevalent, too. This has inevitably led to suspicions that extraterrestrials are engaged in a covert, and possibly sinister, program that may relate to the attempted introduction of a lethal virus of truly cosmic origins into the human food chain. The destruction of the human species in a War of the Worlds-style scenario may not be the only way to systematically wipe us out, adherents of such theories suggest.

A report from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dated 2 February 1979, lends credence to the possibility that the phantom helicopters are implicated in the cattle mutilation mystery to some degree; but suggests that the mutilators may have a far more down to earth point of origin, and may be utilizing the UFO mystery as a convenient cover for clandestine bacteriological and biological warfare activities: “For the past seven or eight years mysterious cattle mutilations have been occurring throughout the United State of New Mexico. Officer Gabe Valdez, New Mexico State Police, has been handling investigations of these mutilations within New Mexico. Information furnished to this office by Officer Valdez indicates that the animals are being shot with some type of paralyzing drug and the blood is being drawn from the animal after an injection of an anti-coagulant. It appears that in some instances the cattle’s legs have been broken and helicopters without any identifying numbers have reportedly been seen in the vicinity of the mutilations. Officer Valdez theorizes that clamps are being placed on the cow’s legs and they are being lifted by helicopter to some remote area where the mutilations are taking place and then the animal is returned to its original pasture. Officer Valdez is very adamant in his opinion that these mutilations are the work of the US Government and that it is some clandestine operation either by the CIA or the Department of Energy and in all probability is connected with some type of research into biological warfare.”

Cattle mutilations continue – albeit not on the scale that occurred in the 1970s. Black helicopters are also still seen. In other words, the mystery hasn’t gone away.

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On the evening of January 23, 1974, something occurred on the Berwyn Mountain range in North Wales that for some within the UFO researcher community has come to be known (to some…) as the definitive British Roswell. As researcher Andy Roberts stated in his excellent book, UFO Down?: “Running south-west to north-east across central North Wales, the Berwyn Mountains separate the flatlands of Shropshire from the Snowdonia National Park. Rising almost 900 metres above sea level, they have played host and borne silent witness to human occupation for millennia.” Andy elaborated: “Prehistoric man lived and worshipped on the mountains leaving behind him a dramatic, ritual landscape dotted with stone circles, standing stones and other once-sacred megaliths – many of which have stood for over two and a half thousand years. Not surprisingly, the area is rife with stories of ghosts and eerie presences. Folklore tells us that these mountains are haunted by many types of aerial phenomena, including the spectral Hounds of Hell: those who saw them recalled how they flew through the night sky baying as though pursued by Satan himself. To the south of the Berwyn’s at, Llanrhaedr-ym-Mochnant, the locals were plagued by a ‘flying dragon’ – intriguingly, a common name for UFOs in times gone by.”

And as Andy also carefully noted: ““It is against this backdrop of history and myth that on the evening of 23 January 1974 an event took place on the Berwyn Mountains that was to perplex locals and spawned a veritable cascade of rumors, culminating in an incredible claim that, if true, would irrevocably change our view of history and make us revise our plans for the future of both our planet and our species.  The claim was that a UFO piloted by extraterrestrials crashed, or was shot down, on the mountain known as Cader Berwyn and that the alien crew, some still alive, were whisked off to a secret military installation in the south of England for study.” Since then, the issue of what did or did not occur on the Berwyn Mountains on the fateful night in question has been the subject of several books, intense controversy, heated debate and, at times, unbridled fury. That something happened at around 8.30 p.m. on the night in question is not in doubt, however.

“I saw this bright light hanging in the sky,” said Mrs. Anne Williams of Bro Diham, Llandrillo. “It had a long fiery tale which seemed to be motionless for several minutes, going dim and then very brilliant, like a dormant fire which keeps coming to life. It would have been like an electric bulb in shape, except that it seemed to have rough edges. [It] then fell somewhere behind the hills at the back of my bungalow and the earth shook.” That the events caused considerable excitement and concern was something also noted by Police Constable Gwilym Owen, who was off-duty at the time and having a pint of beer in the nearby Dudley Arms public house. He stated shortly afterwards: “There was a great roar and a bang and the glasses shook. The sky was lit up over the mountains. The color was yellowish but other people in the valley described seeing blue lights.” Five miles away, Police Sergeant Gwyn Williams was at home in Corwen: “The walls shook and the mirror swung away from the wall,” he recalled. “My first thought was that a big lorry had hit the cinema – it was that kind of a roar and bang. Everyone ran into the street.”

Berwyn Mountains

At 838 p.m., the Global Seismology Unit of the Institute of Geological Sciences at Edinburgh, Scotland, recorded an earth tremor between 3.5 and 4 on the Richter scale. In response to questions posed by eager journalists, Dr. Roy Lilwall, the Senior Scientific Officer at the Institute, said that he had been told that a meteorite had possibly come down on the mountain and, had it been responsible for the “earthquake” that had been recorded at Edinburgh, it would have to have weighed several hundred tons. Approximately ninety minutes after the events on the Berwyns, Ken Haughton of Betws-y-coed viewed a “luminous sphere,” some 400 feet across and traveling at an approximated height of 15,000 feet. It was Haughton’s opinion that as he watched the sphere, it proceeded to descend into the sea in the area of the town of Rhyl, or possibly in the Dee Estuary.

Andy Roberts added, “Following the explosion, Llandrillo district nurse Pat Evans ran out into the village street. She saw no lights but the explosion and the accounts of other villagers convinced her that something had crashed on the mountains. It took her a while to get through to the police as the ‘phone lines were jammed with 999 calls [Note from the author: the equivalent of the United States’ 911 emergency telephone number], but eventually she spoke to Colwyn Bay Police HQ. They suggested it could have been a ‘plane crash so she bundled her two young daughters into the car and set off up the mountain, intending to offer help until the emergency services arrived.

As Mrs. Evans reached the point where the B4391 mountain road levels out she was puzzled by what appeared to be a large illuminated ball of light on the hillside. Unable to identify it was she drove on for a few minutes before returning to the same spot. The light was still there so she parked and observed it for a while. A light drizzle was falling but the night was otherwise clear and Mrs. Evans was able to describe the ball as ‘large,’ and forming a ‘perfect circle.’ But it didn’t appear to be three-dimensional. In an interview she recalled, ‘There were no flames shooting or anything like that. It was very uniform, round in shape…it was a flat round…’ As she watched in puzzlement the light changed color several times from red to yellow to white. Smaller lights, ‘fairy lights’ in Mrs. Evans’ words, could be seen nearby.  It was too far away to reach on foot and so she returned home to bed.”

On the following day, 24 January, a Royal Air Force mountain rescue team from Anglesey was dispatched to the Berwyn Mountains and, along with personnel from Gwynedd Police, searched the location for any sign of the object or its impact point. In turn, they received assistance in the search from the RAF station at Valley, Anglesey, who flew two aircraft to conduct a detailed photographic survey of the area. Nothing was reportedly found. Adding to the mystery, and on that same day, Men-in-Black-style rumors were rife among the local and close-knit communities, suggesting that the area had been descended upon by shadowy government figures that were intent on interviewing anyone and everyone with knowledge of the incident. And only hours later, an unusual aerial object was seen by David Upton at nearby Gobowen. As he went out of the backdoor of his home at about 7.15 p.m., he was immediately struck by the brightness of an object in the western sky and quickly ran back into the house for a pair of field glasses. To his complete amazement, these revealed a disc-shaped object that seemed to be divided up into four distinct sections, each of which was of a different color – red, green, yellow, and purple. David Upton’s sister, Elizabeth, a twenty-year-old bank clerk, then took over the glasses, followed shortly thereafter by their mother, Mary Upton. Both verified David’s description.

“I had been watching it for about ten minutes and thought perhaps I should tell someone about it,” said Elizabeth Upton. She telephoned the local police, and they said that they would dispatch someone to the area. A minute or so after the call, the UFO disappeared behind a cloud. “We waited for the cloud to pass and when it did the disc had gone too,” she explained, adding: “When I first came out of the house the light from the object was dazzling, like a street lamp. When we looked through the field glasses we could define its overall disc-shape and the four sections.” Two people known to have been involved in the affair were Doctors Ron Maddison and Aneurin Evans of Keele University. Both expressed the theory that a meteorite had been the culprit. However, if the object was a meteorite they said, then it had to have (a) completely disintegrated upon impact; and (b) not left a crater, as Dr. Maddison noted carefully that: “…the only changes we could see were recent disturbances of surface soil in some areas, but we were hampered to some extent by light snowfall.”

Two days later, it was stated in the local press that “police and RAF rescue experts” had come to the conclusion that the strange lights seen throughout the area were due to meteorite activity seen – coincidentally – at the same time that a group of men were out on the mountain range hunting hares with powerful lamps. Any link with the “earthquake” was entirely coincidental. RAF search team leader, Sergeant H. Oldham, said that another search of the area was “unlikely” to occur unless further information surfaced that attributed the lights to another source. Perhaps not surprisingly, the “hare” explanation received short shrift with the local witnesses, as can be seen fin the following extract taken from a letter sent to the Wrexham Leader newspaper: “Regarding your front page article ‘Mystery Tremor’ in the issue of January 25, I find the explanation given absolutely ludicrous. The tremors shook houses over a 60-mile radius, and the lights were seen clearly miles away – this was reported by the national press and radio. I know nothing about ‘Hare hunting’ but unless the hunters use aircraft searchlights and kill their prey by lobbing a small atom bomb at them, then I fail to see how anyone can accept such an explanation.”

So what, exactly, did happen on that fateful night of 23 January 1974? Did the strange lights provide firm evidence that a malfunctioning UFO was hurtling towards its doom on the Berwyn Mountains? And was the so-called “earthquake” evidence that this same UFO had almost immediately thereafter slammed at high speed into the bleak and harsh mountain known as Cader Berwyn? Or, was the entire event the result of a large-scale misconception of a curiously synchronistic combination of a meteorite shower, an earth tremor, and a group of men hunting for hares on the mountain and armed with powerful lamps – all in the same location and at practically the same time? The questions are still being answered to this day.

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Having shared with you the story of how and why the FBI took an interest in the antics of Contactee George Adamski, I thought I would give you the story of how the FBI took interest in another famous Contactee, George Van Tassel. Born on 12 March 1910 in Jefferson County, Ohio, George Wellington Van Tassel maintained that he experienced face-to-face contact with very human-looking alien entities following a claimed encounter in August 1953 near his Yucca Valley home in California. The complete history of Van Tassel’s exploits with apparent extraterrestrials is highly bizarre, involving weird accounts of meetings with imaginatively named aliens, including Numa of Uni; Ah-Ming of Tarr; Rondolla of the Fourth Density; and Zolton, the Highest Authority in the Sector System of Vela. According to the now-declassified records of the FBI on Van Tassel, before moving to Yucca Valley in 1947, he was employed by the Douglas Aircraft Corporation in Santa Monica; and Hughes Aircraft, where he worked in an assistant capacity to Howard Hughes. He also worked – the FBI learned – for both Universal Airlines and Lockheed. Exactly what it was that prompted Van Tassel to uproot his family and transfer them to Yucca Valley is something now lost to history. However, along with his wife and children, Van Tassel soon settled into his new surroundings: his famous (or perhaps infamous would be a better description!) cave under Giant Rock – an area leased from the Government.

The image of a 20^th Century family living in a cave situated beneath a sixty-foot-high rock, twenty-eight miles from Joshua Tree, California, cannot fail to conjure up the scenario of a prehistoric family struggling to live in less-than-friendly conditions. Always resourceful, however, the Van Tassels soon began to earn a comfortable living from an airstrip they rented – the Giant Rock Airport – and a small restaurant. As time passed, Van Tassel began to improve the family’s living facilities and the cave became a friendly environment. Fully furnished, it was equipped with electricity, had its own supply of water, a large library, and, as the journalist Ed Ritter noted in 1954, “a comfortable living room where [Van Tassel] studies and entertains guests.”

George Van Tassel

As a result of his alleged August 1953 encounter, Van Tassel compiled the first issue of what he titled The Proceedings of the College of Universal Wisdom, a small journal that served as a mouthpiece for not only Van Tassel but for his supposed cosmic friends, too. In the first issue, Desca, like Rondolla, also of the Fourth Density, urged Van Tassel’s followers (whose number would very quickly reach four figures) to “remove the binding chains of limit on your minds, throw out the barriers of fear [and] dissipate the selfishness of individual desire to attain physical and material things.” In the edition of the Proceedings dated 1 December 1953, Van Tassel stated that, less than a month previously, a “message was received from the beings who operate the spacecraft,” with orders from Ashtar, “the Commandant of Space Station Schare” (pronounced Share-ee) to contact the office of Air Force Intelligence at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. Van Tassel went on to advise the Air Force that: “The present destructive plans formulated for offensive and defensive war are known to us in their entirety…the present trend toward destructive war will not be interfered with by us, unless the condition warrants our interference in order to secure this solar system. This is a friendly warning.”

Were Van Tassel’s contacts genuinely of unearthly origin? Were they the rants of a sadly deluded mind? Or were they possibly a part of a sophisticated Communist-inspired intelligence operation designed to disrupt the internal security of the United States? This third possibility was definitely of concern to a Yucca Valley resident who on 5 August 1954, wrote to the FBI suggesting that Van Tassel be investigated to determine if he was working as a Soviet spy. Seriously concerned that Van Tassel was either a witting or an unwitting player in an ingenious, but subversive, Communist plot, the FBI sought to ascertain the full picture. On 12 November 1954, Major S. Avner of the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations met with N. W. Philcox – who was the FBI’s point of liaison with the Air Force – to discuss the growing controversy surrounding Van Tassel. Three days later, Avner re-established contact with Philcox, and advised him that the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base “has information on Van Tassel indicating that he has corresponded with them regarding flying saucers.”

Giant Rock, California

Very probably this was a reference to the letter that Van Tassel wrote to ATIC at the request of the mysterious Ashtar, who had offered a “friendly warning” with respect to plans formulated for offensive and defensive war. As a result, and not surprisingly, the Air Force offered, “to furnish the Bureau with more detailed information.” One day after Major Avner of AFOSI spoke with Philcox, two Special Agents of the Los Angeles FBI office met with Van Tassel at his Giant Rock home. In a memorandum to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover dated 16 November 1954, the agents wrote: “Relative to spacemen and space craft, VAN TASSEL declared that a year ago last August, while sleeping out of doors with his wife in the Giant Rock area, and at about 2.00 a.m. he was awakened by a man from space. This individual spoke English and was dressed in a grey one-piece suit similar to a sweat suit in that it did not have any buttons, pockets, and noticeable seams. This person, according to VAN TASSEL, invited him to inspect a spacecraft or flying saucer, which had landed on Giant Rock airstrip. VAN TASSEL claimed the craft was bell shaped resembling a saucer. He further described the ship as approximately 35 feet in diameter and is now known as the scout type craft. Aboard this craft was located three other male individuals wearing the same type of dress and identical in every respect with earth people.”

The FBI continued: “VAN TASSEL claims that the three individuals aboard the craft were mutes in that they could not talk. He claimed they conversed through thought transfers, and also operated the flight of the craft through thought control. He stated that the spokesman for the group claimed he could talk because he was trained by his family to speak. The spokesman stated that earthmen are using too much metal in their everyday work and are fouling up radio frequencies and thought transfers because of this over use of metal. According to VAN TASSEL, these individuals came from Venus and are by no means hostile nor do they intend to harm this country or inhabitants in any manner. He declared they did not carry weapons, and the spacecraft was not armed. He mentioned that a field of force was located around the spacecraft which would prohibit anything known to earth men to penetrate. VAN TASSEL claims this craft departed from the earth after 20 minutes and has not been taken back since.”

Van Tassel added that, “through thought transfers with space men,” he had been able to ascertain that a third world war was on the horizon, which was likely to be “large” and “destructive;” that much of this correlated directly with certain biblical passages; that the war would not be “universal;” and that the “space people are peace loving and under no circumstances would enter or provoke a war.” And to illustrate their benevolence towards humankind, the aliens, Van Tassel told his FBI visitors, had bestowed upon him some remarkable data, including information relating to the way in which the human lifespan could be extended to anywhere between three hundred and fifteen hundred years. “This principle was not developed by Van Tassel,” said the FBI. Van Tassel then described his newsletter to the FBI agents, as J. Edgar Hoover was informed:

“In connection with his metaphysical religion and research, he publishes bi-monthly a publication in the form of a booklet called PROCEEDINGS OF THE COLLEGE OF UNIVERSAL WISDOM, YUCCA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. He declared this publication is free and has grown from an original mailing list of 250 to 1,000 copies. VAN TASSEL stated that he sends his publication to various individuals, Universities, and Government Agencies throughout the world. He declared this publication is forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Washington, D.C. He stated that he has donated 10 acres of his ranch holdings to the college. He mentioned that many of the buildings will be made free of metal; which will be keeping within the request of the spacemen.”

Particularly eye opening was the FBI’s concern about who was funding Van Tassel’s operations, on what was certainly a large scale: “[Van Tassel] declared that for the most part he secures money for his needs of life, for the furtherance of his religion, research, and college through the generosity of certain individuals, number about 100. He failed to identify any of these people. He also mentioned that he derives income from his airstrip and a very small restaurant which is located at Giant Rock. VAN TASSEL voluntarily stated that he is not hiding anything nor is he doing anything against the laws of this country in his research at Giant Rock. He voluntarily mentioned that he is a loyal American and would be available at any time to assist the Bureau. VAN TASSEL did not volunteer the names of any individuals whom he was soliciting for funds except his statement above that he sent his publications to various individuals, universities and Government agencies and also the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, DC.”

At the conclusion of the interview, the two agents secured copies of Van Tassel’s Proceedings that were then forwarded to Washington for study and became the subject of a confidential report, that in part stated: “One of the pamphlets contains an article by Van Tassel claiming that Jesus Christ was born of space men and that the Star of Bethlehem was a space craft that stood by while Jesus was born.” As a result of his growing reputation as someone with detailed knowledge of alien intelligence, Van Tassel became increasingly in demand on the lecture circuit, where he espoused at length on his dealings with extraterrestrials, their intentions for the human race, and their overall philosophy. On 17 April 1960, Van Tassel gave a lengthy speech at the Phipps Auditorium, Denver, Colorado, having been invited by the Denver Unidentified Flying Objects Investigative Society. To ensure that the lecture was a success, the society took out advertising time on local radio, that caught the attention of the Denver FBI, who subsequently directed a special agent to attend and report back the details of Van Tassel’s talk, which he did and in great detail:  “The program consisted of a 45 minute movie which included several shots of things purported to be flying saucers, and then a number of interviews with people from all walks of life regarding sightings they had made of such unidentified flying objects. After the movie GEORGE W. VAN TASSEL gave a lecture which was more of a religious-economics lecture than one of unidentified flying objects.”

From then on, Van Tassel was only watched on a few occasions – and in relation to matters of no particular interest. He died in 1978.

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