UFOs and Nukes

[Gene Steinberg]

We're pleased to welcome Robert Hastings, author of "UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites," as an occasional participant in our forums.

Robert was a guest on The Paracast in August, and you can check out that episode here:

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect....ast_080831.mp3

And if you want to know more about his work, check his site, at UFOHastings.

[Cosmic Ejaculator 1814]

Originally Posted by Gene Steinberg

We're pleased to welcome Robert Hastings, author of "UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites," as an occasional participant in our forums.

Robert was a guest on The Paracast in August, and you can check out that episode here:

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect....ast_080831.mp3

And if you want to know more about his work, check his site, at UFOHastings.

Hastings was an excellent paracast guest - clearly a meticulous and thoughtful researcher.No doubt one of the "good guys"!
Nice to see that he's signed up to participate on the forums.I'm sure he'll be a great resource given his depth of knowledge on this topic.

And Robert - if you're out there - what's the status on the Malmstrom 1967 case? How many witnesses have been identified,so far? Have you interviewed any of the people who actually saw the craft that night?

Welcome to the family!

Cosmic!

[Gareth]

Nice. Great episode and guest.

[111uminate]

Awesome indeed! I believe that particular show has become my favorite. I've listened to it more than any other. I just love delving into well documented cases and studying the facts, and Hastings brings that to the table very adeptly. Amidst all the bunk and unsubstantiated claims, no matter how credible or plausible they seem, it's always a breath of fresh air for me to look into the type of work Hastings presents. The documentation is superb, and on the subject of nuclear weapons, it shouldn't be anything less.

I'd also like to mention that I admired his demeanor and the way he carried himself on that Larry King episode. Couple that with the radio show he did here on the Paracast, I have no doubts the man knows his facts and can walk the walk. Any notions of him merely being a writer or reporter on the subject can easily be thrown by the wayside, because he has a passion for it.

Anyway, that might have been a tad overboard but I don't hesitate to give credit where it's due! I'm a huge fan. He's right up there with Dolan for me. I'm not comparing the two (We're all on the same side here), but in terms of the type of work I like to read and study from researchers.

Welcome aboard Mr. Hastings!

[CyBerTrek]

Is this fear mongering or what? scarey news

The Associated Press: Panel warns biological attack likely by 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States can expect a terrorist attack using nuclear or more likely biological weapons before 2013, reports a bipartisan commission in a study being briefed Tuesday to Vice President-elect Joe Biden. It suggests the Obama administration bolster efforts to counter and prepare for germ warfare by terrorists.

"Our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing," states the report, obtained by The Associated Press. It is scheduled to be publicly released Wednesday.

The commission is also encouraging the new White House to appoint one official on the National Security Council to exclusively coordinate U.S. intelligence and foreign policy on combating the spread of nuclear and biological weapons.

The report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, led by former Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Jim Talent of Missouri, acknowledges that terrorist groups still lack the needed scientific and technical ability to make weapons out of pathogens or nuclear bombs. But it warns that gap can be easily overcome, if terrorists find scientists willing to share or sell their know

[Robert Hastings]

Hello all,

Thanks for the kind and supportive words. My participation in this forum will be limited due to other committments related to my research and writing. Moreover, I frequently travel on the college lecture circuit during the spring and fall and will have no email capability until I return home. If I don't respond to a particular question or comment for some time, please don't take it personally. I will respond ASAP, but that may be days or even weeks later. If one wishes to contact me with an urgent matter, my email address is hastings444@att.net.

Let me further say that I intend to post excerpts from my book, UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, not necessarily to sell books, but to acquaint those who will never buy my book, for whatever reason, with my work and findings. To that end, I have already posted a number of articles at my website, ufohastings.com, as well as excerpts from the book at other websites.

At the moment, the available articles and excerpts are:

“A Shot Across the Bow” http://www.cufos.org/hastings.pdf

“Beams of Light” http://www.theufochronicles.com/2008/11/beams-of-light-excerpt-from-ufos-and.html

“Launch in Progress!” http://www.theufochronicles.com/2008/07/launch-in-progress.html

“Like a Diamond in the Sky” http://www.eye2thesky.net/Hastings-Diamond_In_the_Sky.html

“Reporter Duped by UFO Debunkers” http://ufomagazine.squarespace.com/guest-blog/2008/8/27/reporter-duped-by-ufo-debunkers.html

“UFO Sightings at ICBM Sites and Nuclear Weapons Storage Areas” http://www.nicap.org/babylon/missile_incidents.htm

Now, in response to the question about the missile shutdowns at Malmstrom AFB, in March 1967, I will provide an overview:

1) Former Minuteman missile launch officer, Captain Bob Salas, and his missile commander, retired Col. Fred Meiwald, have confirmed the presence of UFOs at Oscar Flight (a flight consists of ten missiles controlled by a Launch Control Facility, or LCF) on what was probably the night of March 24/25. Both men were 60-feet underground in the Launch Capsule, but Salas took a call from one of his topside security guards, who told Salas that a red, disc-shaped UFO was hovering just above the LCF's gate.

Seconds later, most or all of the missiles "dropped off alert status", that is, malfunctioned. Col. Meiwald confirms that a two-man "strike team" was sent into the field to investigate and that they saw a second (or the same) UFO, whereupon they beat a hasty retreat to the LCF. Both launch officers were later debriefed by AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) agents and sworn to secrecy. Salas kept quiet about the incident until 1995, when he began speaking publicly about it. Meiwald has confirmed Salas' account but is reluctant to talk about it.

2) I have interviewed former Lt. Bob Jamison, then a missile targeting officer, who assisted in the restart of the Oscar Flight missiles. A summmary of his account may be found in the last article referenced above. Long story short: Jamison says he was briefed on the UFO-involvement in the shutdown at the MIMS (missile maintenance) hanger before going into the field.

3) An earlier, full-flight shutdown occurred on the morning of March 16, at Echo Flight. Retired Col. Walter Figel, one of the launch officers that day, confirms receiving a call from a security guard, reporting a "large, round" UFO hovering over one of Echo's missiles. Seconds later, all of the missiles began to fail, one after the other. Figel's missile commander, Eric Carlson, claims that he can not recall the event but confirms that, over time, he had received "a great many" calls from security guards while at Malmstrom, during which UFO sightings were reported.

4) I have interviewed former missile targeting team member, N. Henry "Hank" Barlow, about his involvement with the restart of the Echo Flight missiles. His full statement appears in my book but he did say:
"[When we got back to Echo-1] we heard what happened. At Echo-2, there was a team in there earlier that afternoon that could not get the security [telemetry] to set-up, through the parabolic antenna or the soft support building or something like that. So, they put an Air Police team out there, in a camper, two guys. Anyway, one of the guys went out to take a leak, and he noticed that it wasn’t snowing over top of his head. The perimeter lights were on and he could see the snow coming down all around him so he looked up and saw a ring of lights right over top of him. He was scared stiff, so he went back to the camper and woke up his team partner.
When this other guy came out, he had a camera with him, which they weren’t suppose to have, but guys would do stuff like that. By then this thing had moved off the perimeter fence and he took pictures of it. [When the security team was debriefed back at the base,] the Air Force confiscated the camera and film. I was told all of this back at Echo-1."
An excellent summary of the Echo and Oscar shutdowns, written by Bob Salas and researcher Jim Klotz--who did the initial investigation of the Echo/Oscar incidents--may be found at:

http://www.cufon.org/cufon/malmstrom/malm1.htm

The incidents are also extensively covered in the Salas/Klotz book, Faded Giant, and in my own book.

So, enough for now, Paracasters.

Robert Hastings
ufohastings.com

[dorkbot]

I'm about 3/4 of the way through his book and I am quite impressed with the quality of the work. I can enthusiastically recommend it to anyone looking for a carefully considered and knowledgeable reference on the this aspect of the subject.

One of the things that I have been kind of puzzling over for quite some time now is reinforced through many incident reports in this book. The issue seems to be that there appears to be a long-term trend of inconsistent handling of ufo incidents, even spectacular ones that involve national security, by the U.S. defense/intelligence establishment.

In some cases, witnesses are formally debriefed, sworn to secrecy, made to sign documents etc. In other seemingly equally spectacular cases witnesses state that nobody in the chain of command ever said or did anything to ensure their silence or remind them of consequences although it was usually informally understood that one should not talk about it. In some cases, large paper trails, radar printouts, witness statements etc. seem to be readily available. In similar cases logs are altered and there seems to be no paper trail whatsoever even though there are multiple witnesses reporting the events and stating that, at least initially, there would have been a paper trail, radar printouts, radio/intercom recordings etc.

As amply reported in this and many other books, some of the inconsistencies can be explained by self-censorship of witnesses, not wanting to make their own lives any more complicated than necessary but it also seems that there are many cases where self-censorship is not the issue.

The usual consensus seems to be that Blue Book morphed into a PR outfit while AFOSI and maybe CIA/DIA looked into the national security events but in some cases it seems that Blue Book did indeed get involved in serious, spectacular national security cases even if they did eventually offer ridiculous explanations.

To me it seems to somewhat challenge the idea of a central control group pulling everyone's strings. To some extent it seems like there are just a bunch of factions that are not fully cooperating with each other but even in the case of a single entity, the Air Force, how cases are handled and what happens to the paper trail seems to be very inconsistent even in a given year, especially in the later years where one would presume the previous decades had offered ample time to work out strict protocols.

I'd be curious as to Mr. Hastings's thoughts along these lines. Would he agree that there seem to be such inconsistencies and what would he speculate to be the causes of such?

[Irishseekers]

America drops two nuclear weapons on japan!! No surprise this guys have shown up dont you think? If we can use it on ourselfs we are capable if useing it on anyone, plus nuclear weapons of War World 2 probably have less blast radius than the ones we have today.
This ufo occupants seem to me at least like our little planet alot ok who knows even if they are strangers they could be here longer than us, so us fireing off nuclear weapons is not something they are all too pleased with?

[Robert Hastings]

Hi Dorkbot,

Yes, as I mentioned in my book, there are strange inconsistencies in the way the Air Force has responded to nuclear weapons-related UFO incidents. Because the situation has been unfolding, and evolving, over decades, perhaps it's understandable that the incidents were treated differently decades ago, as opposed to those occurring more recently.

Even so, within a given time-frame, the inconsistencies persist. I think that those persons directly involved were more likely to be formally debriefed by OSI or their commanders, while those only peripherally involved were not. Perhaps the thinking was/is: The more people you bring into the loop, by asking them about what they saw, thereby lending some legitimacy to their sighting by merely inquiring about it, the more liklihood of a leak or multiple leaks--that is, breaches of security.

In any case, squadron-wide debriefings of the launch officers seemed to be the exception rather than the rule over the years. On the other hand, one consistent response, from case to case, base to base, year to year, has been the immediate transfer of the missile guards who were involved.

Again, I think this was/is designed to minimize rumors and leaks at the air force base in question, which would occur if the guards talked among themselves about the incident, or to their spouses and friends, despite being warned not to. While it might be difficult or impractical for the Air Force to immediately transfer the much more highly-trained launch officers (although I know of one case where this apparently happened) quickly shipping the guards out, to different bases--so they could not continue to compare notes with each other--was/is less problematic.

Finally, I think some of the inconsistencies can be explained by different commanders reacting differently to such a bizarre situation, due to their personal, individual assessment of that situation. Given that crystal clear, officially-proscribed procedures are apparently not provided to squadron commanders in advance--which would provide guidance and prepare them for a possible UFO incursion--this policy predictably results a wide range of responses at the local command level.

At a higher level, say at Strategic Air Command (now the U.S. Strategic Command) headquarters, and the Pentagon, procedures are obviously in place, known by those with a need-to-know, but those procedures don't seem to be communicated to the various local squadron commanders, and certainly not the missile launch commanders beforehand. One might speculate that this arrangement is also designed to minimize leaks as well as general discussion of UFOs among the rank and file missileers. Only when an incident actually occurs, at a given base, involving a given squadron, does the reality of UFO incursions at missile sites become known to the local missileers involved, then and only then resulting in the security-related procedures being put in place.

While this approach seems illogical in some respects, it has the advantage of not bringing up the subject of UFOs among the missileers unless it is absolutely unavoidable, thereby minimizing leaks and even idle chit chat about the sensitive subject among the troops.

Anyway, that's the best I can do in explaining what I have been told my many former or retired USAF sources.

--Robert Hastings
ufohastings.com

[Robert Hastings]

Hi Irishseekers,

Dr. Dave Rudiak has nicely summarized the UFOnauts' motives and tactics this way:

It has struck me that a great deal of UFO behavior is geared as demonstrations of advanced technical ability, a way of delivering a variety of messages to governments and militaries. Among the messages:

1. We are here. Get used to it.

2. We can go anywhere we want and you can't stop us. Get used to
it.

3. We can outfly and outmaneuver your best aircraft and
missiles. We can selectively knock out their communications and
weapons' systems. You have no defense against us.

4. We can activate and deactivate your nukes at will. We could
trigger a nuclear war if we wanted to and you would destroy
yourself. We choose not to, but if you want to challenge us, we
could.

5. We can literally fly circles around your missiles and knock
them out of flight. So even your most potent weapons are useless
against us.

6. We could bring down all your power grids if we wanted to and
turn your civilization into chaos. We can fry your electronics,
stall your vehicles, bring everything to a grinding halt. We
could, but we choose not to, as long as you behave yourselves
and don't challenge us.

7. We have vast armadas of little ships. Sometimes we like to
show them off in case you forget. You call this UFO waves. We
also have giant mother ships and some times we like to show
these off as well. Do you really think you can challenge us?

8. We can abduct people at will and wipe their memories. We
usually return them unharmed, though psychologically traumatized
deep in their unconscious, which we can't help. The point is, we
do as we want and there is nothing you can do to stop us.

No doubt, others could add to the list. Over and over again, the message is sent that they are here and that we are powerless to stop them. It's a big game of psychological warfare and intimidation. Maybe our militaries get "lucky" now and then and manage to shoot some of them down, but if so, the price has probably been very high in the number of our own aircraft that have been brought down.

I suppose the good news is that we are still here and some respect is shown to us as intelligent, conscious beings. They could have wiped us out a long time ago, if that was their end game.

My suspicion is that we are instead being monitored and quarantined. UFO activity really picked up when certain technological milestones were reached: flight, missiles, EM communications, and, of course, nuclear weapons. Soon, the mastery of the principles of interstellar space flight? That could be their ultimate concern. Our technology has advanced to
the point that in the not-to-distant future we could be a potential threat to them, particularly with our penchant for tribal warfare, as Stan Friedman so often points out. Aggressive, warlike primates with crazy belief systems and armed with nukes and interstellar craft are a very dangerous combination.

So for now, they are keeping us in our place by periodically reminding us of their superiority. They pick and choose where their demonstrations take place. Thus allows for plausible deniability by governments while still slowly acclimating the masses to their presence lest widespread social disintegration take place. Thus a policy of minimal interference and gradual disclosure.

They are biding their time and seeing if we can get our house in order. If we don't, that's our own tough luck. If we do, then the quarantine will slowly be lifted and more direct contact will take place.

[In summary,] I think it's about sending veiled messages, gradually introducing their existence without creating vast culture shock and without having to show up at the U.N. and giving a speech. There probably is more than one civilization involved, which does complicate things.