Is it overly simplistic to surmise that behind all the acronyms, the dissembling, the Sergeant Schultzian denials, the principal motivation for all of this is: "I've GOT to get ME one of those! (before the other guy does.)"
If there's a congressman or senator who wants to understand if there's any truth to the existence of recovered non-human tech, then there are plenty of threads to start pulling on, from two separate angles:
One is the administrative practices for managing projects and maintaining secrecy; and the other is interviewing individuals, related to the Wilson docs, in order to determine who is telling the truth and how much truth the document contains.
I was slightly gobsmacked by Longuemare's comment:
Longuemare passed the buck in an email. “There was a high level Senior Review Group (not 100% on the title) chaired by the DepSecDef,” he wrote, “that had higher level Executive Oversight of a selected number of key DoD programs and activities.”
I'm sorry? Did he just say that a deputy secretary (top civil servant) had greater oversight over certain specific projects than anyone else? I wonder if Christopher Mellon was aware of that little wrinkle?
(One assumes that the SecDef, or higher, could also have access, but would they need to know that a project exists in order to ask/demand to be read in?)
Is Longuemare saying that the opportunity exists for long serving civil servants to run secret projects outside the oversight of their political masters?
Does this relate to the specific place that Wilson had to look to find the UFO SAPS?
One of the aspects of the Wilson docs that raised a red flag for me, was the apparent threat (or warning) to Wilson's career. There would be a pretty small list of people in a position to be that influential (unless there was a UXB in Wilson's past). It sounded more like a paranoid delusion, given that it was these people's jobs to monitor all of it and they reported to elected officials not civil servants.
A politician could also ask: How would that threat/warning be made real? What (and who) would it take to make good on such a threat?
(N.b. I have serious issue with the idea that total control of recovered non-human tech, is in the hands of private corporations, if only because future recoveries are more likely to be made by the armed services and would still need to be managed in total secrecy. Any initial government group in charge (e.g. MJ12) would have to accept the possibility that if it happened once then it could happen again.)
Apparently secret law isn't a new concept and was tried by the U.S. as far back as 1812 and came back into fashion 200 years later. But there's nothing to say it hasn't been used in the intervening years. A quick look at the well known MJ12 doc, that names the initial members, states the group was formed by classified executive order. I think that for a secret government group to continue to exist for decades - and for it to retain its authority for a specific purpose - then its existence would have to have been codified into law, somewhere.
Whoever (if anyone) is actively fulfilling this role, then they are doing so because they believe it to be right, and the most obvious source of authority would be a secret statute; a classified law describing their (additional) duties and responsibilities. This would also maintain 'U.S. Government' ownership of the issue whoever actually possesses any recovered items, specimens or materials.
It might also explain the means to threaten the career of someone as high as Wilson was, if it's a group with legitimate powers on par with the gang of eight... possibly. Vannevar Bush may have advised Truman to take the long view when establishing an 'MJ12' - he certainly looked a fair way ahead when he accurately predicted the World Wide Web.
All conjecture, but if the Wilson docs are true and accurate, then they are describing something that would seem to require a rock solid support structure, provided by existing offices and agencies.
This is not merely conjecture, but conjecture build on some fundamental misunderstandings.
There is no such thing as "a secret statute."
It is true that certain bills, notably the Intelligence Authorization Act, have classified annexes, intended to deny adversaries detailed information about intelligence programs, but these annexes do not have force of law. Robert S. Litt, the General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, wrote in 2015 that it is "incorrect [to assert] that the classified annex has the force of law. Each year’s Intelligence Authorization Act contains a provision...that provides that the amounts authorized to be appropriated are those set out in the schedule of authorizations in the classified annex. It is only that schedule of authorizations that has the force of law. The remainder of the annex is report language explaining the positions of the committee on a variety of issues, and has no more force than any other committee report. That is to say, it expresses the views of the Congress, and it therefore would ordinarily be followed as a matter of comity, but does not have the force of law."
Even more to the point: Especially in the face of the enactments of 2021 and 2022, there cannot be any statutory authority that would sustain any enterprise remotely meeting your construct. Congressional oversight requirements over secret research projects of all types has been tightened up especially since the 1970s. The most recent tightening over "Controlled Access Projects" within the Intelligence Community was achieved by a new enactment as recently as March 15, 2022. It is my understanding that by statute, every type of secret government research project must now be reported to at least a small designated group of lawmakers (somewhat different groups for different types of projects). Thus, by actual statutes (not mythical "secret statute"), there are no projects entirely outside the scope of congressional oversight.
To believe that a UFO-alien-artifact control group has existed in the recent past, and to believe even that it exists under some sort of "secret" legal authority, one also has to believe that the current Director of National Intelligence has been lying to Congress these last few years. One would have to believe that the Pentagon's top intelligence officer lied to a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at a public hearing on May 17, 2022. Or else, even more implausibly, one has to believe that officials at this level are unaware of the existence and nature of some longstanding secret entity that operates under color of law and within their spheres of responsibility.
If any of the stories are true of projects involving studies of artifacts believed to be alien technology, then hypothetically they may pre-date the modern era of congressional oversight. But if that were so, they must now yield to the force of the statutory mandates contained in the Intelligence Authorization and National Defense Authorization acts enacted last year and this year. There is not and cannot be in our system of laws any statutory basis for non-compliance. All military and IC components are now mandated by statute to share all UAP data with AARO. The AARO director is empowered to knock on any door. He is empowered to report directly to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the DoD's second-ranking official, "alter ego" to the Secretary of Defense. The AARO director is required to brief the leaders of the designated congressional Armed Services and Intelligence committees of "any instances in which data related to unidentified anomalous phenomena was not provided to the Office [AARO] because of the classification restrictions on that data or for any other reason."
Hypothetically, a president might assert a CONSTITUTIONAL basis for refusing to comply with a particular statutory command-- but such a refusal would itself be likely to become a visible attention-getter.
To my own satisfaction, I don't believe any secret UFO program has been reported in the manner required by current laws. The Pentagon's top intelligence officer testified that he knows of none. Still, this does not exclude the possibility that some group or program may have existed in the past. There could have been a secret project that was began before the modern era of oversight requirements, or so deeply compartmented that those running it thought, until now, that they were in compliance with whatever requirements existed. But if it exists, there now can be no statutory basis for keeping it secret from AARO and the congressional oversight committees.
Moreover, if the new "secure reporting" system receives credible testimony of any UAP-related program, artifact, etc., not previously explicitly reported to Congress (and again, none have been so reported), the newly enacted law requires the Secretary of Defense to notify the Armed Services and Intelligence committee leaders, and the top congressional leadership, within 72 hours.
If the oversight committees become aware of such a program, artifact, whatever, whether through a "whistleblower" or its own active investigations, a complicated discussion (behind closed doors) might ensue between congressional leaders and the Executive Branch authorities -- and ultimately, this means a president-- regarding what ought to be declassified. There are longstanding differences of perspective between presidents and congressional committees over their relative scopes of authority over official secrets. The day may someday come when the U.S. Supreme Court will be forced to resolve a direct conflict between clearly expressed wish by a Congress, or a house of Congress, to declassify something, and the refusal of a president based on his assertion of constitutional authority. But past disagreements of that kind have ultimately been resolved through negotiation. Should a disagreement ever arise over some classified matter relating to UFOs, it seems to me that is what is again likely to occur. To say it another way, most likely, key congressional leaders and a president would privately come to an agreement over what should be publicly disclosed, rather than having the matter erupt into a conflict in the courts.
I get it. What I'm trying to do is work out what would be necessary for a long-term 'MJ12' to exist. If the structure of U.S. laws and government prevented an 'MJ12' from potentially ever existing then the Wilson docs would seem to be bogus and Eric Davis comes out very badly. (I accept that as a possibility.)
On the other hand, has a group existed secretly, within the bounds of (possibly conflicting) existing laws/rules, but is potentially under threat from being forced into the light due to the recent legislation?
When a body wishes to pursue an 'illegal' action, then practical work-arounds are often devised, like moving onto foreign soil.
As long as there are individuals who believe that they are justified in their actions, then laws will continue to be circumvented (or ignored) in practice.
We might discover that an initial 'secret' Presidential authorisation for a research project, 70 years ago, provided an impetus and justification for ongoing secrecy, by whatever means are deemed necessary by the current participants.
If the law is 'what should be' then we still have to deal with 'what is'; the courts are full with examples.
I have re-read the "Davis-Wilson notes." (1) I don't see that "Wilson" quoted as offering any evidence of the existence of an MJ-12 organization along the lines popularized in hoaxed documents of the 1980s and 1990s. Yes, there is one reference to an "MJ-12 like organization," but what is actually described in the narrative is a longstanding "formal agreement" between the contractor and the formal known bureaucracy, SAPOC, under which the contractor itself would control who would be given access to this purported project. Wilson appeals to SAPOC, which rules against him, etc. (2) At no point do I see "Wilson" say that he thought there was anything illegal about such an arrangement, although he did argue that it was "politically dangerous." (3) In the story, "Wilson" thought that by virtue of his position he should be allowed in. About three years ago I spoke at length to a man who has written books on intelligence matters, and he said this was one of the odd things in the document-- because someone in Wilson's position at the time would, in fact, have had no right to demand entry to the project as described (this expert said), so he had nothing to be justifiably mad about. (4) Odd too that in the story, the contractor "watch committee" refuses Wilson entry because he is not on the bigot list -- yet then tells him the whole story about "an intact craft...not made by human hands," shows him the bigot list, etc. (5) Odder still that five years later, the just-retired head of the Defense Intelligence Agency purportedly would decide to share all of this with a scientist he had never met. (6) In any event, the focus of the newly enacted "authorized reporting" law is to inform AARO and key lawmakers of any hidden UAP projects/archives--not to hash over issues of past legality (which would be heavily fact-dependent and likely disputed). Going forward, all components of the Executive Branch must comply with the will of Congress now clearly spelled out in black-letter law-- or assert constitutional justifications for non-compliance in this specific context, which would be a flare.
I've come across the piece before. It is using "law" the broadest sense-- basically, to mean "non-public interpretations of what the law may allow." I see nothing there suggesting the existence of such a thing as a "secret statute." The UAP statutes exacted in 2021 and 2022 are crystal clear regarding the will of Congress on the matter that we are discussing; the only legal counter would be a presidential declaration that in some given hypothetical circumstance, the mandates contained in these statutes or congressional actions that flow from them, are in conflict with his intrinsic constitutional powers. However, it seems to me quite unlikely that UFOs or alien artifacts will be the ground on which the Executive and Legislative branches choose to press the federal courts to more clearly define the limits of intrinsic presidential authority over official secrets.
Similar conjecture, but I wondered: If the President was the Commander In Chief in 1947 and non-human tech was discovered in New Mexico, then would that constitute a casus belli? Under the imminent threat of war, would the President have the authority to command the armed forces, directly, to create an 'MJ12' that could have evolved it's legal standing over time?
Picking up the vibe that some of these guys are dangerous, white-knucklers holding on to their secrets tightly. These showrunners have yet to be identified and are likely hidden behind layers of pushovers, a sacrifice to Congressional committees. Good luck messing with them.
You have to ask how deep the conspiracy run before anyone testifies. If they depose Davis or others they should hear their testimony in closed session first. You could derail much progress toward Disclosure if Davis or L.E. took the stand and denied key components of what is known. I wouldn't put it past those holding the keys to the kingdom to try to set up the Congressional committee to look like fools....
I wanna see TC get Sean Kirkpatrick on his show, in real time, to look at the Aguadilla video and get the AARO boss to say, with a straight face, that there's no evidence of transmedium activity.
Is it overly simplistic to surmise that behind all the acronyms, the dissembling, the Sergeant Schultzian denials, the principal motivation for all of this is: "I've GOT to get ME one of those! (before the other guy does.)"
Probably.
Certainly not with benign intentions.
If there's a congressman or senator who wants to understand if there's any truth to the existence of recovered non-human tech, then there are plenty of threads to start pulling on, from two separate angles:
One is the administrative practices for managing projects and maintaining secrecy; and the other is interviewing individuals, related to the Wilson docs, in order to determine who is telling the truth and how much truth the document contains.
I was slightly gobsmacked by Longuemare's comment:
Longuemare passed the buck in an email. “There was a high level Senior Review Group (not 100% on the title) chaired by the DepSecDef,” he wrote, “that had higher level Executive Oversight of a selected number of key DoD programs and activities.”
I'm sorry? Did he just say that a deputy secretary (top civil servant) had greater oversight over certain specific projects than anyone else? I wonder if Christopher Mellon was aware of that little wrinkle?
(One assumes that the SecDef, or higher, could also have access, but would they need to know that a project exists in order to ask/demand to be read in?)
Is Longuemare saying that the opportunity exists for long serving civil servants to run secret projects outside the oversight of their political masters?
Does this relate to the specific place that Wilson had to look to find the UFO SAPS?
One of the aspects of the Wilson docs that raised a red flag for me, was the apparent threat (or warning) to Wilson's career. There would be a pretty small list of people in a position to be that influential (unless there was a UXB in Wilson's past). It sounded more like a paranoid delusion, given that it was these people's jobs to monitor all of it and they reported to elected officials not civil servants.
A politician could also ask: How would that threat/warning be made real? What (and who) would it take to make good on such a threat?
(N.b. I have serious issue with the idea that total control of recovered non-human tech, is in the hands of private corporations, if only because future recoveries are more likely to be made by the armed services and would still need to be managed in total secrecy. Any initial government group in charge (e.g. MJ12) would have to accept the possibility that if it happened once then it could happen again.)
These sound like questions for a congressional hearing.
One can only hope.
Apparently secret law isn't a new concept and was tried by the U.S. as far back as 1812 and came back into fashion 200 years later. But there's nothing to say it hasn't been used in the intervening years. A quick look at the well known MJ12 doc, that names the initial members, states the group was formed by classified executive order. I think that for a secret government group to continue to exist for decades - and for it to retain its authority for a specific purpose - then its existence would have to have been codified into law, somewhere.
Whoever (if anyone) is actively fulfilling this role, then they are doing so because they believe it to be right, and the most obvious source of authority would be a secret statute; a classified law describing their (additional) duties and responsibilities. This would also maintain 'U.S. Government' ownership of the issue whoever actually possesses any recovered items, specimens or materials.
It might also explain the means to threaten the career of someone as high as Wilson was, if it's a group with legitimate powers on par with the gang of eight... possibly. Vannevar Bush may have advised Truman to take the long view when establishing an 'MJ12' - he certainly looked a fair way ahead when he accurately predicted the World Wide Web.
All conjecture, but if the Wilson docs are true and accurate, then they are describing something that would seem to require a rock solid support structure, provided by existing offices and agencies.
This is not merely conjecture, but conjecture build on some fundamental misunderstandings.
There is no such thing as "a secret statute."
It is true that certain bills, notably the Intelligence Authorization Act, have classified annexes, intended to deny adversaries detailed information about intelligence programs, but these annexes do not have force of law. Robert S. Litt, the General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, wrote in 2015 that it is "incorrect [to assert] that the classified annex has the force of law. Each year’s Intelligence Authorization Act contains a provision...that provides that the amounts authorized to be appropriated are those set out in the schedule of authorizations in the classified annex. It is only that schedule of authorizations that has the force of law. The remainder of the annex is report language explaining the positions of the committee on a variety of issues, and has no more force than any other committee report. That is to say, it expresses the views of the Congress, and it therefore would ordinarily be followed as a matter of comity, but does not have the force of law."
Even more to the point: Especially in the face of the enactments of 2021 and 2022, there cannot be any statutory authority that would sustain any enterprise remotely meeting your construct. Congressional oversight requirements over secret research projects of all types has been tightened up especially since the 1970s. The most recent tightening over "Controlled Access Projects" within the Intelligence Community was achieved by a new enactment as recently as March 15, 2022. It is my understanding that by statute, every type of secret government research project must now be reported to at least a small designated group of lawmakers (somewhat different groups for different types of projects). Thus, by actual statutes (not mythical "secret statute"), there are no projects entirely outside the scope of congressional oversight.
To believe that a UFO-alien-artifact control group has existed in the recent past, and to believe even that it exists under some sort of "secret" legal authority, one also has to believe that the current Director of National Intelligence has been lying to Congress these last few years. One would have to believe that the Pentagon's top intelligence officer lied to a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at a public hearing on May 17, 2022. Or else, even more implausibly, one has to believe that officials at this level are unaware of the existence and nature of some longstanding secret entity that operates under color of law and within their spheres of responsibility.
If any of the stories are true of projects involving studies of artifacts believed to be alien technology, then hypothetically they may pre-date the modern era of congressional oversight. But if that were so, they must now yield to the force of the statutory mandates contained in the Intelligence Authorization and National Defense Authorization acts enacted last year and this year. There is not and cannot be in our system of laws any statutory basis for non-compliance. All military and IC components are now mandated by statute to share all UAP data with AARO. The AARO director is empowered to knock on any door. He is empowered to report directly to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the DoD's second-ranking official, "alter ego" to the Secretary of Defense. The AARO director is required to brief the leaders of the designated congressional Armed Services and Intelligence committees of "any instances in which data related to unidentified anomalous phenomena was not provided to the Office [AARO] because of the classification restrictions on that data or for any other reason."
Hypothetically, a president might assert a CONSTITUTIONAL basis for refusing to comply with a particular statutory command-- but such a refusal would itself be likely to become a visible attention-getter.
To my own satisfaction, I don't believe any secret UFO program has been reported in the manner required by current laws. The Pentagon's top intelligence officer testified that he knows of none. Still, this does not exclude the possibility that some group or program may have existed in the past. There could have been a secret project that was began before the modern era of oversight requirements, or so deeply compartmented that those running it thought, until now, that they were in compliance with whatever requirements existed. But if it exists, there now can be no statutory basis for keeping it secret from AARO and the congressional oversight committees.
Moreover, if the new "secure reporting" system receives credible testimony of any UAP-related program, artifact, etc., not previously explicitly reported to Congress (and again, none have been so reported), the newly enacted law requires the Secretary of Defense to notify the Armed Services and Intelligence committee leaders, and the top congressional leadership, within 72 hours.
If the oversight committees become aware of such a program, artifact, whatever, whether through a "whistleblower" or its own active investigations, a complicated discussion (behind closed doors) might ensue between congressional leaders and the Executive Branch authorities -- and ultimately, this means a president-- regarding what ought to be declassified. There are longstanding differences of perspective between presidents and congressional committees over their relative scopes of authority over official secrets. The day may someday come when the U.S. Supreme Court will be forced to resolve a direct conflict between clearly expressed wish by a Congress, or a house of Congress, to declassify something, and the refusal of a president based on his assertion of constitutional authority. But past disagreements of that kind have ultimately been resolved through negotiation. Should a disagreement ever arise over some classified matter relating to UFOs, it seems to me that is what is again likely to occur. To say it another way, most likely, key congressional leaders and a president would privately come to an agreement over what should be publicly disclosed, rather than having the matter erupt into a conflict in the courts.
Douglas Dean Johnson
@ddeanjohnson
Hi Dean,
I get it. What I'm trying to do is work out what would be necessary for a long-term 'MJ12' to exist. If the structure of U.S. laws and government prevented an 'MJ12' from potentially ever existing then the Wilson docs would seem to be bogus and Eric Davis comes out very badly. (I accept that as a possibility.)
On the other hand, has a group existed secretly, within the bounds of (possibly conflicting) existing laws/rules, but is potentially under threat from being forced into the light due to the recent legislation?
When a body wishes to pursue an 'illegal' action, then practical work-arounds are often devised, like moving onto foreign soil.
As long as there are individuals who believe that they are justified in their actions, then laws will continue to be circumvented (or ignored) in practice.
We might discover that an initial 'secret' Presidential authorisation for a research project, 70 years ago, provided an impetus and justification for ongoing secrecy, by whatever means are deemed necessary by the current participants.
If the law is 'what should be' then we still have to deal with 'what is'; the courts are full with examples.
I have re-read the "Davis-Wilson notes." (1) I don't see that "Wilson" quoted as offering any evidence of the existence of an MJ-12 organization along the lines popularized in hoaxed documents of the 1980s and 1990s. Yes, there is one reference to an "MJ-12 like organization," but what is actually described in the narrative is a longstanding "formal agreement" between the contractor and the formal known bureaucracy, SAPOC, under which the contractor itself would control who would be given access to this purported project. Wilson appeals to SAPOC, which rules against him, etc. (2) At no point do I see "Wilson" say that he thought there was anything illegal about such an arrangement, although he did argue that it was "politically dangerous." (3) In the story, "Wilson" thought that by virtue of his position he should be allowed in. About three years ago I spoke at length to a man who has written books on intelligence matters, and he said this was one of the odd things in the document-- because someone in Wilson's position at the time would, in fact, have had no right to demand entry to the project as described (this expert said), so he had nothing to be justifiably mad about. (4) Odd too that in the story, the contractor "watch committee" refuses Wilson entry because he is not on the bigot list -- yet then tells him the whole story about "an intact craft...not made by human hands," shows him the bigot list, etc. (5) Odder still that five years later, the just-retired head of the Defense Intelligence Agency purportedly would decide to share all of this with a scientist he had never met. (6) In any event, the focus of the newly enacted "authorized reporting" law is to inform AARO and key lawmakers of any hidden UAP projects/archives--not to hash over issues of past legality (which would be heavily fact-dependent and likely disputed). Going forward, all components of the Executive Branch must comply with the will of Congress now clearly spelled out in black-letter law-- or assert constitutional justifications for non-compliance in this specific context, which would be a flare.
https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/protect-liberty-security/transparency-oversight/secret-law
I've come across the piece before. It is using "law" the broadest sense-- basically, to mean "non-public interpretations of what the law may allow." I see nothing there suggesting the existence of such a thing as a "secret statute." The UAP statutes exacted in 2021 and 2022 are crystal clear regarding the will of Congress on the matter that we are discussing; the only legal counter would be a presidential declaration that in some given hypothetical circumstance, the mandates contained in these statutes or congressional actions that flow from them, are in conflict with his intrinsic constitutional powers. However, it seems to me quite unlikely that UFOs or alien artifacts will be the ground on which the Executive and Legislative branches choose to press the federal courts to more clearly define the limits of intrinsic presidential authority over official secrets.
Similar conjecture, but I wondered: If the President was the Commander In Chief in 1947 and non-human tech was discovered in New Mexico, then would that constitute a casus belli? Under the imminent threat of war, would the President have the authority to command the armed forces, directly, to create an 'MJ12' that could have evolved it's legal standing over time?
A terrific explainer, Doug. Thanks for the post.
Picking up the vibe that some of these guys are dangerous, white-knucklers holding on to their secrets tightly. These showrunners have yet to be identified and are likely hidden behind layers of pushovers, a sacrifice to Congressional committees. Good luck messing with them.
Billy, you remain my favorite writer on this subject. Your prose is lively and your analysis is spot on. Both Ross and I salute your commitment.
There's no way of responding without sounding contrived. So let's just form a Mutual Admiration Society of Old Former Newspaper Guys and let that speak for itself. Your "Need To Know" podcast with Ross is one of my faves. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/need-to-know-with-coulthart-and-zabel/id1600409359
Would Dr. Eric Davis testify under oath if congress asked ?
Guess it all depends on how the proposition was framed.
You have to ask how deep the conspiracy run before anyone testifies. If they depose Davis or others they should hear their testimony in closed session first. You could derail much progress toward Disclosure if Davis or L.E. took the stand and denied key components of what is known. I wouldn't put it past those holding the keys to the kingdom to try to set up the Congressional committee to look like fools....
It's some kid playing a video game Larry!
I wanna see TC get Sean Kirkpatrick on his show, in real time, to look at the Aguadilla video and get the AARO boss to say, with a straight face, that there's no evidence of transmedium activity.