Knowing the Future: CIA, 9/11, UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Presence Part Eight

According to Dan T. Smith, son of the Harvard economist who served as tax advisor to the Eisenhower administration, there is a core "phenomenology problem" faced by today's Intelligence Community.

So what exactly is meant by a "phenomenology problem," and how was it recognized in the first place?

According to an undated draft CIA memorandum, Walter B. Smith, Director of Central Intelligence in the early 1950s, sent a proposal to the National Security Council which concluded that "the problems with unidentified flying objects appear to have implications for psychological warfare, as well as for intelligence and operations."

Smith, both Dan and Walter, point to the same "phenomenology problem" now, as then.

It is no longer a matter of uninformed speculation: the United States, Great Britain, China, Russia, and the Former Soviet Union, to name a few, are concerned about strange phenomena.

As the Freedom of Information Act pushed tightly held secrets into the harsh light of public opinion, bits and pieces of a dark -- some might say disturbing -- secret world have been revealed.

In some Intelligence Community (I.C.) circles it is known as the "Core Story."

And the secrets are alleged to involve government contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence.

To begin to untangle the myth and reality behind the spy games played with these UFO tales, one must take a journey into the historical record.

Like many older Americans, I can clearly recall a dreary, mist filled November afternoon in 1963.

It was announced over the intercom that our President, John F. Kennedy, had been shot, and that school would be dismissed immediately.

I waited, a small child standing alone in the cold rain, for a ride home.

A nation was in morning. I was too young to understand, but the national agony was tangible.

A month after President Kennedy had been assassinated, Richard Helms, a man once quoted as saying "the only sin in espionage is getting caught," issued a request concerning the "phenomenology problem."

And like DCI Walter B. Smith, the future DCI Helms was interested in using phenomena to his advantage in the sordid business of human intelligence.

At the CIA's website, David Robarge writes of Helms:

"Throughout his career, and especially as DCI, Helms hewed to several basic principles of intelligence activity. He expressed most of them in catch phrases, which he used often. Focus on the core missions: collecting and analyzing foreign intelligence."

Somewhere, within those "core missions" of collecting and analyzing foreign intelligence, there was buried a catch phrase later to be known as the "core story."

On the day after Christmas Day, 1963, while the national was still in shock over the loss of their President, Richard Helms wrote to the CIA Deputy Director for Science and Technology:

"Recently, reports from various sources on life science research in the Soviet Union have been called to my attention. These reports indicate a current preoccupation by an important sector of Soviet biological science with cybernetics, telepathy, hypnosis, and related subjects. Stimulated by these reports, I would like to pass on to you some thoughts on the possible significance of these activities to the Clandestine Services."

And the Soviets were not alone in these pursuits. CIA's Technical Services Division had been exploring phenomena since 1953, according to Helms.

Nearly forty-four years after Helms penned his memo, Gus Russo, an investigative author best known for his investigative work on the Kennedy assassination plot, would be asked by Dan Smith to write an article about how the I.C.'s "phenomenology problem" had lead to counterintelligence operations involving U.S. citizens.

Russo examined material from numerous sources.

I discussed some of my own observations with Russo. Together we laughed about why some of our mutual sources in the I.C. would request absolute anonymity when their names were already plastered atop the UFO "core story" on the Internet.

In his article "The Real X-files: Is Uncle Sam a Closet UFOlogist," available at the starpod.org website, Russo expressed his opinion of the high-strangeness of intelligence operations involving psychic spies and UFOs:

"Summing it all up, there is certainly a very small percentage of government officials with intelligence clearance -- some active, some retired -- who are interested in the UFO research community, if not UFOs themselves. Some of these men are of the impression, rightly or wrongly, that a very few individuals in government and the private sector are keeping the big secret even from them. This is small consolation to earnest UFO researchers, but at least they should no longer feel alone and marginalized as kooks completely at odds with officialdom."

"Jim," an expert formerly with CIA who continues to consult for the agency, told Russo:

"I believe there´s a ´core story´ ... but I don´t know what it is. I have been told by people more senior than me that there is some truth to it, but they told me time and time again to stop pursuing it with CIA people and other Intel types. Two very senior officials told me they saw briefing books, [however] the only ones who would be cleared to know the story are the most senior Pentagon career officers ... I have spoken to three former Presidents and the subject always comes up, not as a briefing, but they also want to know the truth. But apparently they aren´t cleared for it."

If the President of the United States isn't cleared for the "core story," then who is?

To be continued in part nine.

Additional background and supporting materials, along with the complete article by Gus Russo, are available to view at the starpod.org website.