(STARpod.org) -- Quoting former UFO Working Group member, CIA analyst and more recently Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) MASINT official Ron Pandolfi, from an email to one of his associates who consults to CIA in the private sector, one must generally define:

What you know absolutely to be true.

What you assess to be true based on indirect information.

What you know nothing about at all.

What we know to be absolutely true is this: the U.S. government has been very interested in unusual phenomena for a variety of purposes since the 1950s, and probably much earlier.

Those interests, which have been concealed in deep black shadows under rules of secrecy, range from the use of unexplained phenomena like UFO reports for psychological operations, to the use of psychics to gather intelligence against America's enemies. (Examples are provided in previous articles in this series, and are available at STARpod.org.)

One thing is clear, regardless of the intended purpose behind government involvement with the very weird:

There remains a clear pattern of government concealment of the core of the story behind the strands of the story known to the public.

As surmised by investigative author Gus Russo in his "Real X-files" article (also available for viewing at the STARpod.org website), the government's motivation "it now appears certain, can be summed up in two words: national security."

A recent example comes by way of Lee Graham, presently retired, who was accused during his years working in the aerospace industry of "asking questions outside his need to know."

Graham continues to ask questions by taking advantage of the Freedom of Information Act.

Time and again the government has denied Graham's FOIA requests on the grounds of national security.

Graham recently appealed a request concerning detection of extraterrestrial artificially controlled objects detected by an American early warning satellite.

The Department of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. replied:

"... you submitted FOIA requests ... requesting copies of a satellite related record depicting an image allegedly taken by a DSP Infrared Telescope of an explosion occurring in Kokomo, Indiana and for the records allegedly depicting the UFO "Fast Walker" detected by one of the DSP Infrared Telescopes on May 5, 1984. FOIA Exemption 1, 5 U.S.C. & 552 (b) (1), permits the withholding of information specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive Order (E.O.), currently E.O. 12958, as amended, to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy if properly classified pursuant to such E.O. Therefore, the Air Force can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the information you have requested."

This "can neither confirm nor deny" escape clause is known as the "Glomar Response," named after the once super-secret CIA vessel used to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine.

According to a review of a previous and related Graham filing found at a Department of Energy website, the "Glomar Response" is required "where the existence or non-existence of requested documents is itself a classified fact exempt from disclosure ... or where admission that documents exist would indicate that the agency was involved in a certain issue ... or that an individual is the target of investigation or surveillance ... [or where] the existence or non-existence of requested documents is classified."

It would have been much easier for the Air Force to respond, "we have no records on file where a DSP satellite has detected the presence of an extraterrestrial object."

Unless ... perhaps, there is more to the story.

Graham is not alone in having risked his career by asking questions "outside of his need to know."

Others, placed much higher in government, have done the same. If they are to be believed, some of the UFO information exists even outside of the President's need to know.

It isn't hard to find persons of intelligence -- or persons from an intelligence agency of the U.S. government -- who are involved at some level of interest with the UFO issue. UFO interests come from top level CIA technology analysts, like Ron Pandolfi, who admitted in a covertly tape recorded phone conversation with a foreign national to having been a member of the once secret "UFO Working Group." They come from former astronauts, like Dr. Edgar Mitchell, one of twelve human beings to have walked on the moon. And they are discussed by numerous lesser known experts who have heard the rumors or seen the classified documents first hand.

Over the past ten years the evidence has continued to mount in favor of the involvement of the government of the United States with the alleged "extraterrestrial presence."

For some, like Dr. Christopher "Kit" Green, even the existence or nonexistence of the mystery remains concealed and may be "legally protected."

Green's career at CIA included work on the Glomar recovery project and his involvement in the early days of psychic warfare research at the Stanford Research Institute, a matter of the record where he is named by Ken Kress in a declassified edition of the CIA's STUDIES IN INTELLIGENCE.

Green has since left CIA but continues as a consultant to the government. He is also a member of the National Academies of Science / Defense Intelligence Agency TIGER Committee, where he provides expert analysis on emerging defense applications in the field of neuroscience.

The TIGER Committee is notable for membership which includes Ruth David, the former head of CIA Science and Technology, and John Gannon, former CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence.

Green's past and present position and his involvement with government interests in phenomenology have made him an unwitting target of considerable gossip on the Internet.

In January of 2006, in a privately distributed email list, Green referenced a discussion of exotic propulsion and energy topics at one of the TIGER meetings. Exotic energy concepts include so-called zero point energy or vacuum energy, which many physicists consider the 21st century equivalent of the perpetual motion machine. Zero point energy is also closely associated with the "reverse engineering" of UFO propulsion systems.

I alluded to the TIGER meetings in a series of articles called "The Psi Spy," which eventually lead to USAF consultant Eric Davis stating "I have no knowledge" of the DIA involvement during an interview with George Knapp on the Coast to Coast radio program.

One message forwarded to me in January of 2006 appeared designed to connect Ron Pandolfi, the previously mentioned CIA analyst from the UFO Working Group, then at the DIA, to the TIGER committee:

"Ron P told me that you very likely know the names of all the members of the National Academy of Science "UFO" TIGER team. If this is true, could you please tell me who they are. I have come up with something that he wants briefed to them."

Clearly someone was pursuing an agenda to link Pandolfi and the UFO topic to the TIGER committee.

And hidden in that linkage were seeds of a tale spun of spies, lies, and a polygraph tape incident.

At the core of this particular story: allegations that TIGER's John Gannon was involved in covertly spread UFO tales on the Internet. And a series of deliberately leaked email messages forwarded from Dr. Ron Pandolfi.

Was a private intelligence operation behind the scheme?

CONTINUE TO PART TEN

Copyright (c) 2009 by Gary S Bekkum, STARstream Research and STARpod.org -- All rights reserved.