Part 15: Army/CIA Unit Studied the Real UFO Blue Book Cases

Part 15: Army/CIA Unit Studied the Real UFO Blue Book Cases

© 2009 by Linda Moulton Howe

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“To finish their meeting with Vice President Nixon, the FBI had a short film

about a saucer materializing over a power station. Nixon said he brought

us in to the FBI and USAF meeting to see that 16mm film of the UFO.”

- “Stein,” Former Army/CIA UFO Analyst

January 2, 2009 Albuquerque, New Mexico - My June 29, 1998, interview with Stein at his Florida home continues from Part 14, in which he describes in more detail a Fall 1958 meeting about the UFO phenomenon in the White House's Oval Office with Vice President Richard Nixon and personnel from the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Richard Milhous Nixon,

V. Pres. for 34th President, Dwight D. Eisenhower,

January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961;

and 37th American President, January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974.

“WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER THAT NIXON SPECIFICALLY SAID ABOUT THE UFO PHENOMENON?

Nixon asked Anthony Barden and me about how many foreign reports there were and if any of the CIA spies in the Soviet Union had seen any reports about contacts with aliens. We said, ‘Yes, they have,’ and we told them about an incident with the aliens that almost triggered a nuclear war. A saucer craft was hovering over one of the silos for their rocket launching facility in the Soviet Union and all the switches turned on after the aliens interfered with the electrical fields. The engineers tried to shut off the switches, but the switches would not shut off. WHAT YEAR? Early 1959 probably because I think we were at the White House for the second meeting when the cherry blossoms were out in Washington, D. C. – like late March or April. DID YOU HAVE THREE MEETINGS IN WASHINGTON, D. C.? Yes, but the first one was cancelled. THAT’S WHEN YOU WENT TO THE CIA LIBRARY? Yes.

[ Editor's Note: In previous Earthfiles reports of my long 1998 discussions with Stein, he referred to the “Langley CIA” in what had become a generic name for the agency by then. The Central Intelligence Agency was created on September 18, 1947, by President Harry S. Truman's National Security Act of 1947. The CIA replaced the National Intelligence Authority (NIA) and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). At first, the newly created CIA personnel moved into 2430 E Street N. W. that had housed the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) during World War II in a low-lying region of northwest Washington, D. C., known as Foggy Bottom.

Original 1948 sign on the

CIA's first offices in the OSS building on

E Street N. W. in Washington, D.C.

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) occupied this

2430 E Street N. W. building in Washington, D. C., during World War II.

With the creation of the post-war Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on

September 18, 1947, the CIA moved into the OSS building.

As the CIA grew, it spread into three dozen CIA offices scattered around the nation's capitol. On August 4, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill authorizing $46 million for construction of a CIA headquarters building. On November 3, 1959, the cornerstone and time capsule were placed in the new Langley, Virginia, CIA headquarters. ]

THE SECOND MEETING WAS ONLY WITH VICE PRESIDENT NIXON?

Yes. The third was with President Eisenhower and Nixon together in the spring of 1959.

LET’S GO TO THE MEETING WITH NIXON WITHOUT THE PRESIDENT. WHEN WAS THAT?

It was cold. It had to be like November or December of 1958.

WERE YOU WITH ANTHONY BARDEN?

Yes, the two of us went together.

WERE YOU MADE TO SIGN ANY SPECIFIC NON-DISCLOSURE OATH IN ORDER TO GET THE TOP SECRET WHITE HOUSE SECURITY CLEARANCE?

Yes. We had to sign an oath that we would follow all the procedures and rules and regulations about handling classified material to the length of the classification, kind of a generalized oath for handling classified materials.

DID IT HAVE ANYTHING ABOUT PUNISHMENT IF YOU TALKED?

Yes, that you would be arrested and put on trial for passing on classified materials.

YOU TOLD ME YOU THOUGHT AFTER 35 YEARS, YOUR OATH WOULD BE LIFTED?

Yes, when I started working with cryptography, that had a non-disclosure limit of 35 years related to cryptography classified materials. Also, when we started the CIA Project Blue Book study of international photographs and films or sketches, our non-disclosure agreement was for 35 years.

THAT ENDED WHEN?

1995.

 

Getting Into White House Oval Office Meeting

WHAT WAS THE PROCESS TO GET INTO THE WHITE HOUSE?

We flew up on Eastern Airlines from our southeastern military base to Washington, D. C. We were picked up there at the airport and taken to a hotel around 5 PM in Langley, Virginia.

THE NEXT MORNING, WHAT HAPPENED?

Anthony had called CIA headquarters regarding transportation to get to the White House. They sent one of the CIA black limousines for us. The CIA had its own cars like that for transportation for executives and people who visited in work. The limos were busy all the time.

WERE THE CARS MARKED IN ANY WAY?

No, there was a sticker on the windshield, which I believe did say in small print, ‘CIA,’ and had a code number across the bottom of the windshield. That determined for the White House guards that it was an authorized vehicle to enter the White House grounds.

WHAT WERE THE PLATES LIKE?

Government plates.

IT’S FALL 1958? Yes. When they picked us up at the airport, they kept the small suitcase we had of the classified materials we wanted to show Nixon. That way, we could go to the hotel, check in with our suitcase of personal clothes and leave the classified materials in the back of the CIA limo. It was a small suitcase about twice the size of a normal briefcase that we carried classified materials in while we traveled.

WHAT WAS IN THE SUITCASE?

Foreign photographs of alien craft that we were working on and anything that we could show as examples of the UFO phenomenon internationally.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE ALL OF DISCS? ANY BEINGS?

All discs and the one triangle from Belgium.

WAS THE TRIANGLE A NEW PHOTOGRAPH THEN IN THE FALL OF 1958?

Yes, it was probably a month old at that time.

SO THE BRIEFCASE OF MATERIALS YOU ARE TAKING TO VICE PRESIDENT NIXON IS IN THE BACK OF THE LIMOUSINE. WHEN YOU GOT TO THE WHITE HOUSE, WHAT KIND OF SECURITY CHECK DID YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH?

First, the limo was stopped and the driver had to show his I. D. The White House security guards also checked the I. D. on the limo windshield. Then we had to pull the limo ahead and roll down our windows so that security could check both of our I. D.s. Then the driver pulled the limo up to the side entrance and we went up to the door. There were guards there and we had to show our I. D. again.

Then we had to open the briefcase so they could check inside to make sure we weren’t carrying a bomb into the White House, you know? That was the bomb test. (laughs) Then we came in and walked down a long corridor and got into the Oval Office area where we waited in a small room right off the Oval Office. We told the guard there that we had an appointment and he went to check with the appointment secretary. The appointment secretary went inside the Oval Office to talk directly to Nixon. Then the guard took us into the Oval Office. Nixon got up from his desk and introduced us to a CIA head from the southeastern U. S. in charge of using CIA field agents overseas to check Project Blue Book cases. Then he introduced USAF and FBI people. Nixon did not name them all. He named only the heads, not all of us. My boss introduced me. We went to set down and there were not enough chairs. Nixon was irritated and said he would probably have to go to Congress to get more chairs (laughs).

Then a security guard was sent for two more chairs and they brought in their two security chairs.

WHY WOULD THE FBI HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN WHITE HOUSE MEETINGS ABOUT UFOS?

Apparently because they had investigated some sightings in the local U. S. I know the local USAF interviewed eyewitnesses and asked the FBI to investigate as well.

THE USAF WOULD BE ABLE TO USE THE FBI BECAUSE WHY?

J. Edgar Hoover – UFOs were like a pet project for him.

HE WAS VERY INTERESTED?

Yes. At first Hoover thought it was some kind of national conspiracy produced by Soviets or South America. He was very interested from a national security point of view. Hoover was not at the meetings, but he always met with the President, Vice President and his FBI agents who were at the meetings. I think that Eisenhower and Hoover were reasonably close. Both were very outspoken men, both rough and gruff, cut you right off in the middle of a sentence. But apparently Eisenhower thought that Hoover had been very efficient over the years and did a good job.

WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR THE MEETING WITH NIXON?

That meeting was for a progress report about our new CIA Project Blue Book study of international UFO phenomenon incidents and aerial photographs. We reported to Nixon about the worldwide situation – what we had on UFO sightings. There were also people there in the meeting from the USAF and FBI who had all the domestic American information reports. That’s the only meeting I attended in which the FBI was present with us. That morning, the FBI had begun a 9 AM meeting with Nixon before us. They were supposed to be done before our meeting began at 10 AM, but Nixon called us in as they were finishing up.

 

16mm Film Screened in Oval Office of UFO

“Materializing” Over Power Plant

Nixon had to go somewhere the next morning (and was cramming as much discussion in before he left). To finish their meeting with Vice President Nixon, the FBI had a short film about a saucer materializing over a power station. Nixon said he brought us in to the FBI and USAF meeting to see that 16mm film of the UFO.

DID NIXON OR ANYONE TALK WHILE THE FILM WAS SCREENED?

No, we just watched it. There was no soundtrack, it was only silent. The USAF Colonel who was there said before it started that he was going to show an actual film of a saucer craft materializing over a power plant. Nixon said, ‘Materializing?!’ And the USAF Colonel said, ‘Well, wait until you see the film.’ The Colonel said he wouldn’t say more about the film because it would be self-explanatory when we saw it. The Colonel had the lights shut off and he started the projector.

IN THE OVAL OFFICE, WHERE WOULD THEY WATCH A 16MM FILM?

The USAF Colonel had a portable projector that folded down into a suitcase. You opened it up and the reel arms rotated out to put film reels on. There was also a little portable screen.

DID THE AIR FORCE COLONEL SET UP THE SCREEN?

It was already set up in a back corner of the Oval Office and we had to pull some drapes shut so it was more dark in there. WHERE DID NIXON GO TO WATCH THE FILM?

He sat right at his desk because he could see it from there. The rest of us had to turn our chairs around because the screen was almost directly behind us.

DID THE AIR FORCE COLONEL MAKE ANY PREPARATORY REMARKS?

He said it was a new film and it was taken by an amateur photographer on his movie camera. He said the film was self-explanatory and we would look at the film first and then talk about it.

So he turned the film on and we watched. It was a power station. You could see the smoke stacks and steam going up and then you could see a little, white cloud that developed over the power station.

WAS THE FILM COLOR?

Yes. It was a blue sky. You could see the smoke from the smokestack. Then about fifty feet to the right of that, you could see the little cloud developing and getting bigger and bigger. Pretty soon, the cloud got more round and then in the cloud itself you could see little porthole windows as it was turning. It still looked like a cloud at that point. Then as it got larger, the craft got more silver colored and then you could not see the cloud. The silver craft was all you could see. The bottom of the craft turned a reddish or pinkish color and then it started moving slowly away.

 

Nixon: “This is a helluva thing!”

That was the end of the film. Nixon said, ‘This is a helluva thing!’ Nixon swore an awful lot – almost every other word was a cuss word. He said, ‘I can’t believe this. This saucer develops and flies away!’ Then he asked if we had any information about where the craft came from. No one had any information.

Then Nixon said, ‘This would be a helluva thing in a war. They could materialize over any power station and you would have saucer craft all over the Earth.’ Then Nixon asked, ‘Do you think there were aliens in the materializing saucer craft?’ The USAF and FBI guys told Nixon they had no idea. There was discussion about whether it was a remote-controlled craft with no beings in it. But we had no way of telling. It did look like one of the smaller alien craft at Area 51.

BUT NONE OF THE CRAFT YOU DESCRIBED AT AREA 51 HAD PORTHOLES IN IT, RIGHT?

No, no portholes at Area 51. But in the White House meeting, the USAF Colonel made the comment that the craft over the power plant looked like a smaller alien craft. If that were true, then it was not exactly like the alien craft at Area 51 that Anthony and I saw. But the USAF and FBI might have had other photographs of small alien craft that had portholes.

Nixon asked us for an explanation and Anthony said, ‘We have no idea how anything does this. Perhaps the aliens have some way of taking the electrical current from the power plant and changing it into matter to be able to manifest the craft.’ You could not see through the craft. It looked solid. It was not transparent. We didn’t have any radar reports and there wasn’t any record of radar showing it near the power plant, but it looked shiny silver and solid like a regular UFO.

I spoke up and said, ‘Mr. Vice President, I think they came from far away and transported themselves here and don’t have to go through the problem of going through time and space. I think they are moving point-to-point and can be here almost instantly.’

 

Disc and Two Non-Humans

Landed Near Butte, Montana

We also went over photographs of a saucer that landed and alien beings got out at the Anaconda Copper Mine near Butte, Montana. Nixon said a saucer craft had landed near the Anaconda Copper Mine in Butte, Montana, and aliens had gotten out and someone had snapped photographs of the aliens. It looked like the aliens were picking up ore samples from the ground and taking them back into the craft. Then, the craft hovered slightly above the ground and took off rapidly. It was out of sight in only a second or two!

[ Editor’s Note: Wikipedia – “The Anaconda Copper Mine's underground Berkeley Mine was located on a prominent copper vein that extended to the southeast from the main Anaconda vein system. Open pit mining operations began in July 1955, near the Berkeley Mineshaft. The open-pit style of mining superseded underground operations because it was far more economical and much less dangerous than underground mining.

Anaconda Copper open pit mining operations began in July 1955, near Butte, Montana.

“Ultimately, about one billion tons of copper ore and other metals were mined from the Berkeley Pit. The Anaconda Company bought the homes, businesses and schools of the working-class communities of Meaderville, East Butte, and McQueen, east of the pit site. Many of these homes were either destroyed, buried, or moved to the southern end of Butte after residents were compensated market value for their lost property.” ]

DID YOU RECOGNIZE THE MONTANA CRAFT AS ANYTHING LIKE THE CRAFT YOU SAW AT AREA 51?

It was similar to the alien craft we saw at Area 51, the bigger, silver craft.

DID YOU HAVE PHOTOGRAPH BLOW-UPS FOR THE MEETING? OR ONLY THE ORIGINAL PHOTOS?

Yes, they had some blow-ups. But the photos were taken by a resident who had a cheap, small camera. And when you blow up low quality photos, the blowups aren’t much help.

COLOR?

No, black and white?

WHAT WERE YOU SEEING IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS?

There were two aliens outside the craft and it looked like they were picking up something off the ground like rock or ore samples. In another photo, the beings were headed back into the craft. Another photo was the craft taking off. Another picture was real blurry like the craft had just sped away leaving streaks from the craft in the picture. With a cheap camera like that, it would not have any controlled shutter speed, so something that was really fast would be only a blur.

COULD YOU SEE ANY DETAILS ABOUT THE ALIEN TYPES?

No, it was too far away. But you could see they were wearing some kind of flight suit that was silver in color. They had something like a helmet over their heads.

HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE CRAFT IN THE ANACONDA MINE PHOTOS TO THE CRAFT YOU SAW AT AREA 51 IN MID-AUGUST 1958?

It looked just like the biggest alien craft that we saw at Area 51 that was a silver disc.

WITH A LITTLE CUPOLA ON TOP?

Yes, it had a small raised top. This one, too, had the three round nodules on the bottom of it, which looked like little radar domes.

Photograph at 9 AM, December 13, 1952, by George Adamski at Palomar Gardens,

California, through his 6-inch telescope. Source: Page 65,

Inside the Space Ships © 1955 by George Adamski.

DURING THE PRESENTATION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM MONTANA, DID THE USAF, FBI OR NIXON MAKE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT THE BEINGS OR CRAFT?

They referred to it as an ‘alien craft.’ Nixon was familiar with that from seeing photographs and other briefings.

DO YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT THE PHOTO COMMENTS?

The discussion was between the USAF and Nixon in regard to those particular photographs because the Air Force had investigated that particular sighting and interviewed the residents who took the photos.

WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS DID NIXON HAVE?

He asked if the people who took the photographs said anything that might help us better understand the event. The eyewitnesses told the usual story: they had seen the craft in the sky, went into their house to get the camera, went back out and saw the craft had landed and they took photos. So time had elapsed between their seeing the disc in the sky and when they finally got their camera back outside because the craft had already landed and the alien beings were already picking up samples and going to the craft to leave.

DID NIXON SAY ANYTHING LIKE, ‘THIS LOOKS LIKE THE DISC WE HAVE PHOTOGRAPHS IN ANOTHER CASE?

No, he didn’t. When we were in our meeting, we talked to him about the Montana disc looking like the biggest craft we saw at Area 51. Nixon told us that he recognized it, too, and thought it was the same type of craft.

NIXON SAID THAT? Yes. THEN DID NIXON SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE GERMAN DISCS?

No. Nixon never brought that up at the meeting. All the photographs we had to show him were alien type craft, not German. At that Fall 1958 meeting with Nixon, we did not see any photographs of aerial discs that resembled any German craft. We knew the Montana craft was not a German model, but was like the craft identified as ‘alien’ at Area 51.

DID NIXON HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT GERMAN DISCS?

Yes, he did. We mentioned that we saw the seven discs in the Area 51 cave hangar and we recognized them as Vril and Haunebu I and II. Nixon already knew Area 51 had some German craft.

Nixon wanted to know if anyone had found out any more information about where the aliens came from and what they were doing. The USAF and the FBI always had the same story: ‘We really don’t know. We think that the aliens are not hostile. We had no hostile encounters with weapons or shooting at airplanes after we lost airplanes to the aliens and their saucer craft technology in the 1940s.’

[ Editor’s Note: This is contradicted by Leonard Stringfield, long-time UFO investigator living near Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, who said he was secretly told that the USAF had lost so many planes and pilots trying to shoot discs down from the 1940s to the mid-1950s, that finally a shoot-down policy was rescinded.]

 

Nixon Frustrated by Lack of Answers

About UFO Phenomenon

After the USAF and FBI left the Oval Office meeting, Nixon said, ‘Boy, I guess we haven’t gained a thing. Have you people learned anything more?’ We told him what we had, but it was nothing outstanding either.

BUT YOU HAD BEEN TO AREA 51 AND ENCOUNTERED THE GREY BEING.

Oh, yes. Nixon knew we had been to Area 51.

DID HE KNOW ALL ABOUT THE CRAFT AND THE BEING?

Yes, he knew exactly what was there. We asked Nixon if he had ever been to Area 51. He told us, ‘No, but they brought me photographs of the craft and alien.’ He said he had received a complete rundown from an officer who had been to Area 51 several times and Nixon knew about the classified Blackbird project test flying out of Area 51. So, yes, he had a rundown of the whole shot about what was at Area 51.

Nixon also asked us if we had any answers from the alien about where it was from. Anthony told him the number and really long name that was supposed to be some kind of planet. Nixon said that was the same story they had gotten from the beginning.

We asked Nixon how long the being had been at Area 51? We wondered if it was since the 1940s? Nixon said it wasn’t in the 1940s, but that the USAF had told him the being had been at Area 51 ‘a good while.’

I said to Nixon, ‘Do you mean that when you asked how long the alien had been there, they didn’t tell you exactly?’

Nixon said that the officer that brought the material to him at the White House did not know exactly how long that particular alien had been there, but thought it was a considerably long time. Nixon said, ‘I hate that when people talk to me like this! ‘Considerable time’ could be thirty years or six months!’

BUT NIXON WAS VICE PRESIDENT THEN. COULDN'T HE HAVE ASKED, ‘WHEN EXACTLY WAS THIS BEING PUT IN THIS BUILDING?’

Right. It was like for some reason the authorities at Area 51 really did not want to tell Nixon. I don’t know why the big secret about how long that alien had been at Area 51. It seems like the length of time should not be that big of a thing. But they wouldn’t tell us, either, when Anthony and I and the other CIA guys were at Area 51 in August 1958.

Nixon said to us, ‘When your trip to Area 51 was arranged, Ike set all this up and OK’d all of this because you were supposed to get a thorough tour at Area 51.’ Nixon asked us how long we were there and we told him we had only ten minutes with the alien. Then Nixon said, ‘This is B. S.! Your Area 51 tour was supposed to be extensive.’

Then Nixon asked us, ‘Did you inspect the craft? If a craft like those at Area 51 landed overseas, did you get a close-up look at them so you could really tell if there was a match?’

We told Nixon, ‘No, they just took us down the walkway and didn’t let us go beyond the ropes.’

Nixon said, ‘If you want to know the truth, I think we’re both on the outside looking in on this thing and they tell us whatever they damn well please!’

BUT WHO IS THE ‘THEY’?

The USAF and the people running Area 51.

I think it was a civilian who actually ran Area 51.

WHO?

I have no idea. Names were never mentioned about who was actually in charge. We had asked who was in charge of Area 51 and the alien operation when we were on the August 1958 tour. Col. Jim would not say anything except, ‘I’m in charge of your tour.’ That Colonel gave us the minimum information possible and we told Nixon that.

BUT IF THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT HAD SET UP FOR YOU ALL AT THE CIA TO GO ON A THOROUGH TOUR AT AREA 51 TO SEE ALIENS AND AN ALIEN BEING TO FACILITATE CIA INVESTIGATIONS OF THE UFO PHENOMENON, WHY WOULD YOU HAVE NOT BEEN TAKEN INTO EVERY SINGLE CRAFT AND TOLD EVERY DETAIL KNOWN ABOUT THE ALIENS?

That’s what Nixon expected. And I imagine when Nixon told President Eisenhower, he was probably pretty upset. He got very upset whenever his orders were not precisely acted upon. He just blew his stack. But we never heard anything more about the issue.

Then the third and last meeting in which I participated, it was with both Eisenhower and Nixon in the spring of 1959. In that meeting, nothing was said about our trip to Area 51. We only covered current UFO issues with President Eisenhower for about a half-hour.”

Dwight David Eisenhower,

1st Supreme Allied Commander Europe and

34th American President, January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961.