For the past couple of weeks the Internet UFO community has been abuzz with rumours of a secret meeting held at the UN building in New York City in mid-February. The meeting, alleged to have been attended by representatives from most UN member nations, as well as ‘three US senators’, was called to discuss the increased rate of UFO sightings and how best to deal with their impact on the staus quo. Also at stake was how best inform the public of the ongoing presence of our ‘neighbours’, as the ‘leaked’ statement referred to non-human extraterrestrial visitors.
The story was distributed via members of the Exopolitics and Disclosure movements. Both these groups seek to force Earth governments into open admission of their alleged contacts with advanced ET civilisations, the hope being that they possess both the technology and the inclination to save humankind from inevitable and imminent environmental and geopolitical disaster.
Here’s the outline of the story so far and a somewhat confusing graphical representation of what little information is out there.
What follows is my initial take on the material, and further along, an excellent dissection from veteran UFOlogist and thinker Jacques Vallee:
Beyond the fact that the sources for this leak were flimsy at best (and quite possibly non existent), and that the story was being promoted by groups with clear spiritual/political agendas, my own suspicions were aroused by the preconditions for ‘disclosure’. Effectively these are global economic, environmental and political stability by 2009. Given the current state of world affairs (or the perpetual state of world affairs) none of these conditions are the least bit likely to be met before 2900, let alone 2009.
From the original information release:
2009 was raised as the year when an important change in official attitudes concerning the UFO phenomenon could be made…
This indicated an important policy shift were the study of UFO’s would be officially encouraged. However, certain global conditions would have to be met for the official opening. Most important appeared to be social stability in G-8 countries and the maintenance of liberal democratic systems in developing nations…
The meetings were very concerned about social upheaval from continued UFO sightings and the testimonies of individuals claiming to have first hand knowledge about UFO’s, extraterrestrial life, and future global events. It was reported that adverse public reactions to UFO sightings could have a dramatic economic impact that could lead to recessions in some countries.
For the intended subjects of this information, the UFO/conspiracy enthusiast, this suggests not only that geopolitical power and the potential for peace on Earth lie in the hands of what is generally perceived as a foreign body – the UN, already viewed with some suspicion by many Americans, especially those in the UFO/conspiracy field – but that eventual communion with the ETs, being the only force capable, within the secular mythic imagination of the 20th and 21st centuries, of enforcing peace on Earth (see The Day the Earth Stood Still, CE3K etc), will also be dictated by the UN.
So, by preventing ordinary citizen believers from meeting and greeting ET, the UN, or more likely another shadowy body that controls the UN, are effectively perpetuating global instability and appear not to have our best interests at heart. Whether or not this was the intention of the story, this may actually prove quite helpful for the American government and their military, as it turns the heat surrounding UFO disclosure away from them and onto the UN.
None of this is stated explicitly in the material being distributed at the moment, but it is there in the discussions on Internet forums such as Open Minds. One poster was already bringing that old bugbear the Trilateral Commission into play, raising the undying spectre of the sinister global power elite, a distorted and greatly simplified reflection of international politics that is as at least as old as John Robisons’ Proofs of a Conspiracy (1797) and the better known Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903). This episode looks like it is shaping up as a reprise of the conspiracy theories promoted by William Cooper, John Lear et al in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, whose fusion with the UFO mythology brought us both the X Files and David Icke. It’s probably more accurate to say that these ideas never left us, they’ve just been fermenting in a vat stored in an underground alien base and are ready to be released once more, more potent than ever before…
Of course, it’s entirely possible that there was a UFO-related meeting in the UN building. It may have been small and privately organised or it may have been something larger and more official. But at this point in time all we have to work on are rumours.
Veteran ufologist and advanced thinker Jacques Vallee provides this excellent (and far more succinct) breakdown of the rumours:
I would not get too excited yet about this information: In our follow-up in France we could not verify that Gilles Lorant (the alleged original source for the leak MP) worked at the places he claims (CNRS has no record of him) and we cannot get any clear answers to the basic questions about this meeting.
At this point it sounds very suspect: another series of claims with no support behind it, which can only contribute to make it more difficult to get scientists to become seriously involved in this field.
It seems to me this story is falling apart but the structure is very interesting — along the lines of a psywar rumor process:
1. You make up a really intriguing story that seems very legitimate by including respected names: UN, French Ambassador, DSK etc. and precise dates.
2. You leave it full of holes so that people will come up with questions, thus revealing who is interested and why.
3. You imply great secrecy, thus dangling new bits of mystery.
4. You slowly retract the story (since a lot of it was made up in the first place out of pure imagination) but you point to a legitimate-looking person (Lorant) who was there.
5. The legitimate-looking person (whose credentials don’t check out) “reveals” more details but does not confirm the earlier story, thus gaining additional credibility and “dangling” new information.
6. Legitimate journalists reinforce the apparent story by trying to follow this new trail.
7. You throw in new intriguing names like Ted Kennedy and John McCain through new anonymous sources “who could be in danger if they revealed their names…” thus seducing more recognizable researchers into revealing their interest…
8. You use the Internet to circulate the whole mess to an increasing circle of people, hoping to create a mass effect.
9. At that point, any official denial of the story (or part of it) sounds like a cover-up or skeptical reaction, enabling you to claim that you are the victim of disinformation, etc. etc.
All very clever… It is much easier to program human beings than to program computers!
Jacques’ essential trilogy examining the UFO phenomenon has recently been republished by Anomalist Books and come with the highest recommendation.
I plan to explore this story and others further in my own forthcoming book, Mirage Men, due Autumn 2009 from Constable. Also watch out for the documentary film of the same name, made with John Lundberg.
Disclaimer: given the often emotional climate surrounding discussion of UFOs, I feel it necessary to state the obvious and point out that my scepticism of the above rumours is not to be seen as a rejection of the wide range of personal experiences encompassed by the UFO and its attendant phenomena.
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10 March update:
From Robert Morningstar, one of the original disseminators of information about the alleged UN briefing and editor of the UFO Digest site.
Hi, Everyone…
Since I am one of the sources of the information on the UN Meeting, I reiterate that I have met with the source, a military liaison diplomat, 3 times and I reaffirm that he has presented me with official credentials/documentation that have satisfied my own criteria for credibility, (which are very high).
I am not a liar nor am I a hoaxer and I would ask that all interested parties, instead of arguing with each other over the merits of the story, in which so much time and energy has already been invested, simply call or write to your congressmen/women and Senators in the US and your parlimentary represenatives in Canada and Europe (UK/EU) and tell them, don’t ask them, TELL them, ORDER them to FORCE Disclosure. After all, you are their “bosses”, they are not your “bosses.” They work for you, you put them in office and you pay their salaries.
Thanks to all the people at Open Mind Forum for their civility and intelligence in discussing this affair, pro and con, and especially those who have taken the time to do some excellent investigation and detective work on it. You have my gratitude and my respect.
Thank you,
Robert Morningstar
Editor, UFO Digest
p.s. I have given my word not to disclose the identity of the source and I’ll keep my promise to him. I would add, looking back on history, particularly in the case of the Watergate leaks, if Woodward and Bernstein had caved in to popular pressure to reveal the name of their source, he would not have been called “Deep Throat” but “Slit Throat”.
So, let’s do something more productive together and put the pressure on the politicians to get of their scared asses off their seats and get some action going in Washington, DC.
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11 March Update
Greetings from the UN Public Inquiries Team.
As far as we are aware of there was no meeting concerning UFO’s at the United Nations. Attached below are the Journals for those days which lists all the meetings that took place:
Best regards,
Public Inquiries Unit
Public Relations Section
Department of Public Information
United Nations