Ancillary Mercy полностью

Keyhoe never needed much provocation for a crusade; he now set out to gather his proof. Ruppelt had just left the air force, succeeded at Blue Book by Capt. Charles Hardin and a total staff of two. Wasting no time, Keyhoe met with Ruppelt at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on April 4. They shared UFO accounts, and Ruppelt mentioned an upcoming UFO article he helped to write for True (his conclusion: if flying saucers were real, they were interplanetary). Ruppelt agreed to write a letter supporting the claim that Keyhoe had used genuine ATIC sightings for his book. His letter, dated a week later, also stated: (1) The request to clear classified UFO reports for Keyhoe came from air force intelligence and the Office of Public Information; Ruppelt’s superiors at ATIC then declassified them. (2) Keyhoe had correctly quoted the ATIC material. (3) The analysis of the Utah film was classified, and the press release Ruppelt had prepared at Dayton had not been made public. (4) A letter by Albert Chop to Henry Holt and Company which attacked “the silence group” was honest and correct in all respects. (5) Except in a very few cases, ATIC rejected Donald Menzel’s theory that UFOs were sun dogs, halos, light refractions, etc. It appeared Ruppelt had chosen his side of the battle.⁵²

The stew over Keyhoe’s book continued until November, when General Samford decided to end the mess. He summoned Col. John O‘Mara from Dayton and directed him to clear up any misunderstanding about Keyhoe’s use of air force data. O’Mara was directed to write to Eickhoff and explain that he had misunderstood the air force, that Keyhoe’s latest book did contain officially released air force reports—which it did, of course.⁵³

Meanwhile, another independent UFO organization came into existence. In March 1954, Leonard Stringfield formed Civilian Saucer Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects (CRIFO) out of Cincinnati. Within months, Stringfield gained national recognition after Frank Edwards plugged him on the radio. Stringfield was swamped with requests for his newsletter—six thousand in one week—and interviewed with newspapers and radio stations coast to coast.⁵⁴ Stringfield soon met with UFO contactees and became suspicious. Some of them, he believed, were “official plants”.⁵⁵ Stringfield may have been on to something. Covert ops never ceased in the national security state. Later that spring, for example, Hoover’s FBI gained authority to engage in unrestricted microphone surveillance, including any illegal trespasses along the way. This neatly circumvented a Supreme Court decision that bugging was unconstitutional. David Wise called the order “virtual carte blanche to break and enter, installing bugs and wiretaps.” All this had long been going on; now it was just easier. The order remained fully in effect until 1965, when FBI bugs became subject to the Attorney General’s approval. Even then, however, Hoover still did as he pleased.⁵⁶

UFO SIGHTINGS OF EARLY 1954

The outbreak of UFO news occurred, in part, because UFOs themselves appeared in significant numbers once again. Not all of the reports were verified. Wilkins is the source of several Australian sightings from early 1954, including two from Alice Springs. The area is near America’s NSA facility at Pine Gap, one of the largest and most secretive information-gathering stations in the world. America’s involvement in the area began in the mid-1960s, and the area has been heavy with UFO rumors for years.⁵⁷ The CIA continued to monitor flying saucer reports worldwide, especially in France, where UFO sightings were recorded on January 4, January 7, and January 9. One involved a sighting over an airfield, another described extreme maneuverability, and another was seen by multiple witnesses in several locations. On the eighteenth, the CIA noted a UFO sighting over three towns in Algeria. CIA files also noted a March 1 sighting of a UFO over a beach at Montevideo by multiple witnesses; the object appeared to be a metallic disc emitting yellowish reflections and was stationary for two minutes at a high altitude.