U.S. Officials Persist in Secrecy, But UFOs, Real, Claims Authority

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# U.S. officials persist in secrecy but UFOs real, claims authority

By VICTOR WILSON Washington Bureau, The Oregonian

WASHINGTON --- So-called flying saucers are very real, but unrelenting federal secrecy has obscured this fact for more than 25 years, according to one of the foremost authorities on unidentified flying objects (UFO's).

To those few in the know, says Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), about the only major questions unanswered on UFOs are (1) whether crews are anything like humans physically and in their thinking processes: (2) where in space they are from, and (3) what is the space aliens' motive in keeping earth under surveillance.

Keyhoe, West Point graduate and World War II aide to now retired Gen. Charles A. Lindbergh, and since 1957 director of the National Investigations Committee of Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). has helped analyze more than 11,000 UFO reports.

The massive evidence thus assembled has convinced even the most skeptical of military general officers among NICAP's membership that UFOs are real. Why then, asks Keyhoe in "Aliens from Space," is a cover-up still maintained by the Air Force, and more recently by the Central Intelligence Agency?

The best he can answer is that "high officials," fearing a public reaction that could lead to panic and perhaps chaos, "are convinced it is best to delay admitting that UFOs are real."

Keyhoe reminds readers of this country's Espionage Law, which prohibits private citizens from revealing any information affecting defense of the United States. Penalties can range from five years imprisonment to a $10,000 fine.

A Joint Chiefs of Staff secrecy directive, JANAP-146, covers armed forces airmen and airliner pilots and crews. Entitled "Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings from Aircraft," it directs immediate transmission of all data to the Aerospace Command and the nearest military command.

"Under the provisions of JANAP 146," Keyhoe explains, "hundreds of pilots reporting UFOs have been strictly muzzled and are still officially silenced." As a graduate of the Pensacola, Fla, Naval Aviation Training Station, and a retired commissioned officer in the armed forces, Keyhoe presumably feels he's covered as both a private citizen and as a former flying officer. So there are limits to what he can say.

But Keyhoe feels free to report some astonishing things about UFOs, official "policy" toward them, and to draw conclusions and make recommendations. For example:

Air Force policy for some time has been to fire at UFOs when sighted and to pursue them when possible (some pilots doing so have disappeared). There also have been reports of UFO firings at earth objects. Several fatal airliner crashes have been attributed to UFOs, and in other cases passengers have been injured on commercial flights whose pilots look violent evasive action on sighting UFOs. An official report by a retired Army member of the Joint Chiefs said "the phenomenon reported is something real, not visionary or fictitious," and UFO sightings have increased since America's space program went into high gear.

Keyhoe's book presents an elaborate plan called "Operation Lure," by which flying saucers with crews could be induced to land long enough for observation via television, listening devices (for linguists who might decipher their language), motion pictures, etc.

Coincidentally, a week before Keyhoe's book was published, the Gallup Poll reported that 51 per cent of Americans it polled believed in UFOs.