Reading the headline “World’s First Laser Developed to Shoot Space Junk Out of Orbit” probably makes many of you think that this is going to be about the military and this is just the ‘official’ version because they’ve undoubtedly been doing this – or at least testing it – for years. All of that may be true, but this recent announcement is actually about a non-military group in Australia and the laser isn’t blowing space junk to bits but pushing it out into deeper space where it can no longer fall to Earth. Let’s find out if it really works and if it’s indeed a good idea.

“More than 500,000 pieces of debris, or “space junk,” are tracked as they orbit the Earth. They all travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft. The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station, space shuttles and other spacecraft with humans aboard.”

NASA has long been concerned about the junk it is leaving in space as it’s a danger not only to Earth but to other things NASA is putting in space. The US. Department of Defense is responsible for tracking space debris larger than 2 inches in diameter and has looked into various ways to remove objects that may pose a danger. Those methods generally involve moving junk to a lower altitude where it will burn up or blasting it into smaller pieces with another satellite. Electro Optic Systems Pty Ltd (EOS), which is already established as a leader in tracking space debris, has a different approach.

“Our expanding network of space sensors provides accurate, specialised catalogues for assessing collision risk in real time. Conjunction analysis is performed continuously, and the sensor network is re-tasked in real time to allow timely collision prediction using orbit errors smaller than 100m.

In some cases it is not possible to manoeuvre a satellite to avoid a near-certain collision. For these circumstances EOS is currently fielding a new type of laser tracker which can deliver sufficient laser power to move certain types of space debris to new orbits to avoid collision. This system cannot damage or fragment debris, but rather provides harmless radiation pressure to move the debris over many seconds of engagement.”

EOS Space Systems CEO Dr. Ben Greene described to 9News how the Guide Star Laser, a “real breakthrough for space technology,” will work. Installed on the top of Mount Stromlo at the EOS headquarters in Canberra, the Guide Star Laser’s first orange beam acts like a guidance light on a firearm to pinpoint the junk. Then a second, more powerful invisible laser is fired at the junk, slowly pushing it out of moving it out of its danger-causing orbit and deeper into space. This technology allows the removal of dangerous junk from much lower altitudes than satellites can, and with a much faster deployment time. The Guide Star Laser can also move much smaller debris at a fraction of the cost of other methods.

We still haven’t addressed the obvious – the Guide Star Laser ‘moves’ rather than ‘removes’ space junk. Unfortunately, neither does the EOS website not the9News interview. They do point out that it’s ready to go to protect satellites and ground infrastructure from pace junk – we assume that includes people too. Moving the junk deeper into space doesn’t seem to concern EOS nor its future customers – it’s expected to begin contracting out its services in 2022.

Will this just create a bigger area of junk farther out in space? Isn’t that like moving trash to more remote areas on Earth? How is that working out for us?

My previous article on the Roswell controversy of early July 1947 – at the Foster Ranch in Lincoln County, New Mexico – focused on a portion of the Japanese part of the story. It’s a story that revolves around (A) Japanese documents captured at the end of the Second World War – on huge Japanese balloon arrays – and (B) Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, someone who was directly tied to both the Roswell event and Japanese balloons. I should stress (and I will in this article) that this is far from being the only Roswell-Japan connection. As you will see right now, a very curious UFO-themed story surfaced in the United States in May 1949. It caught the attention of the FBI, an agency that had been keeping a careful watch on the subject since the summer of 1947, when the flying saucer exploded on the world stage. On May 26, an FBI document – captioned “Flying Discs” – was written and revealed the facts concerning a strange saga. It stated: “Walter Winchell forwarded to the Director a Western Union telegram he had received from Robert Ripley [of ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!’] which stated that he, Ripley, had the only authentic Japanese flying saucer ever recovered in this country. Mr. Winchell noted on the telegram, “To J. Edgar Hoover – True?” “This matter was discussed with Colonel [deleted], OSI-USAF, who advised on April 27, 1949 that he had interested himself in the flying saucers and related subjects and that in so far as could be determined by him through his sources in the Air Force, which are excellent, there is no authentic information available concerning the phenomenon of flying saucers. He advised he would check with the authorities at Wright Field to determine if any information is available concerning the recovery of a Japanese flying saucer.”

The document continued:

“Colonel [deleted] has now advised that there is no information available in any arm of the Air Force to the effect that any flying saucers of any kind have been recovered in the United States. Colonel [deleted] stated delay had been encountered in determining this fact inasmuch as inquiries had been directed through individuals known to him and trusted by him and not through the usual channels from which he possibly would receive a stock answer.” It turned out that this particular Japanese saucer was nothing of the sort. It was a good-natured hoax, mixed with a liberal degree of misidentification and exaggeration. Rather ironically, however, the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations became very worried by this prank. The OSI’s concerns were that (A) the truth of the Japanese link to Roswell might come tumbling out; and that (B) members of the public who might stumble on the remains of Japanese Fugo balloons – which were still being occasionally found across the United States, for years after the war was over – could mistakenly interpret them as flying saucers. And, in a worst case scenario, blow themselves to pieces if the bombs were still in working order. It’s most intriguing, therefore, that the OSI suggested it would be very wise to take seriously any and all reports of debris “remains of Japanese balloons [which] might cause flying disk hysteria.”

Nick Redfern

The FBI drew parallels between Fugo balloons and flying saucers midway through 1947. Dr. Lincoln LaPaz was up to his neck in those same balloons during the Second World War. Roswell fixture, Bill Rickett, hung out with LaPaz in New Mexico, as the good doctor sought to secretly solve certain aspects of the Roswell crash. And, we know that the Air Force was also making a Fugo-UFO connection in 1949. From the very earliest days of Ufology, Japan’s balloons and flying saucers were regular bedfellows. Now, let’s take a look at two more Japan-Roswell connections. One of those who saw the Roswell bodies was Melvin E. Brown, a man who was stationed at the Roswell Army Air Field at the time of the mysterious crash in early July 1947. Tom Carey and Don Schmitt reported that Brown’s father, Beverly, described the dead crew as having “big heads with slanted eyes.” In her interview with ufologist Tim Good, Beverly made a very intriguing and revealing statement. She said that the bodies her father saw back in ‘47 “…looked Asian [italics mine],” but had larger than normal heads and lacked any hair. “They looked a yellowy color.” There is also this from Beverly to Tim: “…they could have passed for Chinese [italics also mine].”  It is one thing to say that the bodies looked somewhat Asian; however, specifically stating that the bodies which Melvin Brown saw “could have passed for Chinese” strongly suggests they were extremely human-looking.

One final thing: the Foster Ranch – where all of the drama went down – is located in Lincoln County, New Mexico. It so happens that also in Lincoln County is Fort Stanton, In the Second World War it held Japanese people. Over the years physically handicapped people were held at Fort Stanton. Japanese people and handicapped people are the key to finding the truth surrounding the victims of the Roswell incident. Although all of the documentation on Roswell has vanished, I know I’m right.

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Over the last few days I’ve written articles on how and why the Roswell affair of July 1947 had nothing to do with aliens, but everything to do with secret experiments that involved huge balloon arrays, some of which were created by the U.S. military and others that were based on Japanese documents captured at the end of the Second World War. At this stage in the story, I am going to draw your attention to the fact that J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI noted a parallel between the investigation of UFOs in the summer of 1947 and the Japanese balloon wave of a few years earlier, when the Second World War was still raging. The FBI document quoted from below – which surfaced thanks to Freedom of Information legislation – shows that in the summer 1947 there was a mindset that suggested “disk” sightings were not unlike the Japanese Fugo balloon sightings and investigations of a couple of years earlier – at least, in terms of how they should be investigated. 

According to the FBI:

“It is felt that the situation regarding these flying saucers and flying disks is very similar to the situation which was previously encountered by the Bureau during the past war in handling complaints arising out of the sightings of Japanese balloons. You will recall that at the inception of these complaints the Bureau conducted considerable investigation and located numerous balloons as a cooperative measure for the Army then informed that these were military weapons and that they would take over the handling of these completely. This they did and in an extremely short time issued a big press release as to the splendid work of the Army in locating these Japanese balloons. From the information available thus far it does not appear that these disks should be treated other than as a military weapon. Certainly the Bureau has no way to determine what experiments the Army and Navy are conducting and whether such might be arising out of experiments being conducted by them, nor do we have any way of determining how far the Russians have progressed in certain experiments and whether such might be the results of experiments by the Russian Army.”

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the keeper of all secrets

As this memo reveals, the FBI was making certain investigative parallels between the Fugo balloons of the Second World War and the flying saucers of 1947. It is most eye-opening that the FBI also noted: “…the Bureau has no way to determine what experiments the Army and Navy are conducting and whether such might be arising out of experiments being conducted by them…” This strongly suggests there was a fair degree of belief, or suspicion, within the FBI that what was being seen was not from some faraway star-system, but from right here. On Earth. That the FBI also stated, “From the information available thus far it does not appear that these disks should be treated other than as a military weapon,” also speaks volumes about where the collective mind of the FBI was then-currently at. In view of what we have seen so far, we can make a good case that in the summer of 1947, the FBI knew – or at least strongly suspected – that UFOs were the product of Uncle Sam. Now, let’s take a look at a certain, central figure in the Roswell mystery who also had a link to…wartime Japanese balloons.

Master Sergeant Lewis “Bill” Rickett – of the Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) – was someone who many Roswell investigators believe knew exactly what happened on the Foster Ranch in July 1947. At the time of the mysterious event, Rickett was the Non-Commissioned Officer-in-Charge at the Roswell Army Air Field. Years after the event, Rickett admitted to UFO researchers his presence at the ranch site – along with Sheridan Cavitt, also of the CIC – on July 8. Rickett also shared a few other snippets of data, when the mood took him. For the most part, though, he remained very tight-lipped – even cagey at times – on exactly what took place. Rickett did, however, admit that approximately two months after the crash on the Foster Ranch took place, he liaised on the top secret matter with one Dr. Lincoln LaPaz. At the time, he was the Director of the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritics. He and LaPaz undertook a secret assignment to try and figure out “the speed and trajectory” of the craft that slammed into the heart of Lincoln County. Reportedly, the pair found a “touchdown” location just a few miles from the ranch, as well as a patch of ground that had been exposed to a significant amount of heat. According to Rickett, the object that hurtled to the ground on the ranch was somewhat bat-winged, but certainly not what anyone would call a flying saucer – which is an important point, given that all the talk at the time was of saucers and disks.

There are good indications that Rickett knew a great deal about the Roswell bodies, too. UFO investigator Stan Friedman had the opportunity to speak with Rickett back in the 1980s. It was an absolute cloak-and-dagger-like conversation that was noted not so much for what Rickett did say, but for what he didn’t say. Friedman recalled: “When I mentioned bodies, Rickett clearly reacted and indicated that this was an area he couldn’t talk about. He indicated there were different levels of security about this work; that a directive had come down placing this at a high level. He went on to say that certain subjects were discussed only in rooms that couldn’t be bugged.” Clearly, Rickett was a concerned man – as he certainly should have been. In other words, decades after the mystifying incident, Rickett was still fearful of saying too much to too many – and particularly so on the matter of the bodies. Nevertheless, it may have been a result of opening his mouth just one too many times that finally led Rickett to get what we might call a friendly warning. You know the sort: they are actually anything but friendly. From whom? From Sheridan Cavitt, formerly of the Counter-Intelligence Corps; the man who assured the U.S. Air Force in the 1990s that nothing stranger than a weather-balloon was the cause of all the sensational press-coverage way back when.

One particularly important fact that many Roswell researchers have either not realized or have carefully avoided highlighting, in case – shock, horror – it dares to support my conclusions, is Dr. Lincoln LaPaz’s connection to the issue of Japan’s Fugo balloons. In 1945, the University of New Mexico issued a press-release titled “New Mexican Had Lookout Job For ‘Japanese Germs.'” It revealed a certain, previously secret, aspect of LaPaz’s life, and it reads as follows: “Dr. Lincoln LaPaz of the University of New Mexico was in the thick of the fight against Japanese plans to send disease germs into America by balloon, said President J.P Wernette of the University today. Commenting on stories from the Navy in Washington revealing that use of germs and viruses in the Jap balloon-barrage was an enemy project as the war came to an end, Dr. Wernette said that Dr. LaPaz, head of the department of mathematics and the University’s Institute of Meteoritics, was with the government’s secret anti-balloon project during the war.”

University staff continued: “‘If the war had not ended when it did, in the opening stages of a full-scale balloon offensive which probably would have taken place between October 1945, and now, when the velocity of the west wind at high altitude is greatest, this country would have had unpleasant experiences,’ Dr. LaPaz said today. ‘People most concerned were trained scientists, and stockmen, too, he said. Anthrax spores could have been sent over in the paper balloons in great numbers, and Manchurian sheep pox could have easily struck the hooved animals of this country because the disease has not been found here and there would be no natural immunity, Dr. LaPaz went on.” LaPaz was quoted as saying: “But the Japanese, using radio devices to locate their balloons on the flight to this country, apparently did not realize that we could pick up the signals an find the balloons before they reached the mainland.”

A similar press release issued by the University of New Mexico – also in 1945 – details further information on LaPaz’s Fugo-themed work for the U.S. military: “Observers, watching for meteors, thought they had something when they saw some brilliant lights in the sky from February to May, 1945. And they did, said Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, mathematics department head at the University of New Mexico and director of its Institute of Meteoritics, today. The displays were actually made by Japanese balloons, Dr. LaPaz said, revealing the history of a scientific study of meteors which went on before and during the time that Dr. LaPaz was busy in secret government work of studying and combating the balloon offensive. Nevertheless, a few months later, on Nov. 29, 1945, a great meteorite fell slowly across northern California and Nevada, and observers mistook it for everything from a jet plane to a Hollywood publicity stunt. Members of the Society for Research on Meteorites and the American Meteor Society, thought at first that it was a new type [of] Japanese balloon bomb.”

If, as the interviewees in my The Roswell UFO Conspiracy book asserted, the key event that led to the legend of the UFO crash at Roswell involved a “next-generation of Fugo” balloon of huge proportions that was responsible for launching an experimental aircraft that catastrophically crashed, then who better to enlist into the study of how and why the experiment failed than an expert on those very same balloons? Namely, Dr. Lincoln LaPaz.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

Just a few weeks after it was revealed that U.S. Navy warships off the coast of Los Angeles were followed by UFOs on two consecutive days in 2019, and just days after its top admiral admitted publicly that neither he nor the Navy know what they are, an investigative filmmaker experienced in UFO research revealed and released “two unclassified slides and some of the most intriguing military captured UAP footage I have ever seen.” Yes – photos and videos of the UFOs the Navy can’t identify. Is this the smoking video? Can you help identify them?

“I obtained the materials quite some time ago in an anonymous data drop. Included was detailed written context to accompany each item. My challenge was in activating my network in an attempt to validate or disprove some of the claims and details provided. This is done both through mining the materials themselves for revealing metadata – as well as – finding those who would have knowledge of the events described or who are confirmed to be in a position to have direct awareness of the items I obtained. This took time – seemed ages to me – but it paid-off. George Knapp and I were able to verify the materials you are about to consider. I can confirm their authenticity – as well as – the narrative supplied to me when they were presented.”

Kudos to filmmaker Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell and George Knapp at Mystery Wire for the work they’ve done to bring these astounding photos and video to the public. (View and watch them here.) Briefly, The Drive (kudos have already been delivered to them) revealed that at least one and possibly as many as five other warships encountered mysterious long-flying UAVs off the coast of Los Angeles in 2019 using more sophisticated equipment than was available in 2004 during the famous Nimitz encounter on the east coast. In a speech at a Defense Writers Group event in Washington this week, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday, the U.S. Navy’s top officer, said the UAVs/UFOs have not been identified. This is especially shocking when taken with Corbell’s revelation that the materials he released came from a classified briefing on the incidents held on May 1st 2020, and that since then they’ve been distributed to “a wide range of intelligence networking platforms (such as SIPRNet, JWICS and various Intelink systems).” Do they not know anything or are they not saying anything?

“This intelligence briefing contains an estimated 10 videos (FLIR and HUD) and about 10-12 photos documenting some of these UAPs.”

On his website, Corbell describes the small subset of the videos and photos he was given. (Take a look again.) The video and some of the photos of a “pyramid” craft were taken by crew members on the USS Russell. The image of the spherical craft (another Tic Tac?) was taken from the USS Omaha, whose crew watched it “descending into the water without destruction” – a search by submarine found nothing in the spot. Three photos (revealed earlier by Mystery Wire — see them here) taken on the same cell phone by a Weapons Systems Operator show three different crafts taken on one F-18 sorti.

JULY of 2019 / USS Russell / Warning area off of San Diego / Strike Group 9"},"hSize":null,"floatDir":null,"html":"","url":"https://youtu.be/-Pjqdaz_b24","width":854,"height":480,"providerName":"YouTube","thumbnailUrl":"http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-Pjqdaz_b24/hqdefault.jpg","resolvedBy":"youtube"}" data-block-type="32" id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_1617868803760_10901">

JULY of 2019 / USS Russell / Warning area off of San Diego / Strike Group 9

USS Omaha / UAS = Unmanned Aerial System

“Collectively, this data drop represents a small section within a large mosaic of UAP awareness by our DoD. And its presence in a classified series of intelligence briefings – clearly demonstrates how the UAP subject is being viewed, pursued and handled by the United States defense industry.”

Hope you were seated when you read Corbell’s conclusion. It’s clear that something is pursuing U.S. Navy vessels and the Navy and DoD don’t know what they are or know but don’t want to reveal it to the public. In a Mystery Wire podcast, Corbell admits he can’t explain them. However, he sees this as a significant event.

“It is my hope that these materials will be representative of a unique moment in modern history; a possible turning point towards the rational and transparent approach of investigating and exploring the mystery of the UFO Phenomenon.”

Can you identify any of the UAVs? Will their true identity ever be known? Will it ever be released? Is this truly a turn towards UFO transparency?

Again, kudos to Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell and George Knapp.

Archaeologists unearthed a 3,000-year-old “lost golden city” in Egypt. Located on the western bank of the city of Luxor, the recently discovered lost city has been described as being the most significant Egyptian find since King Tut’s tomb was found.

The lost city, which is called Aten, was actually found by accident as archaeologists were excavating a site between the temples of Kings Ramses III and Amenhotep III in hopes of finding the mortuary temple of King Tut when they instead found remnants of an ancient city.

In a statement provided by the Egyptian mission, they explained how the city was discovered, “Within weeks, to the team’s great surprise, formations of mud bricks began to appear in all directions.” “What they unearthed was the site of a large city in a good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and with rooms filled with tools of daily life.” “The archaeological layers have [lain] untouched for thousands of years, left by the ancient residents as if it were yesterday.” In fact, some of the houses have walls that measure almost 10 feet tall.

Temple of King Amenhotep III

In addition to the houses, archaeologists discovered a bakery with a big kitchen that still had ovens and pottery. A workshop was unearthed with casting molds that would have been used for ornament and amulet production (perhaps for tombs and/or temples). They also uncovered a residential and administrative area that was fenced in with only one entrance/exit, leading experts to believe that it was used as a security measure.

As for the industrial areas, numerous tools used for weaving or spinning were found as well as glassmaking and metal leftovers. One of the most interesting items found was a vessel (it held two gallons of dried or boiled meat) with an inscription that read, “Year 37, dressed meat for the third Heb Sed festival from the slaughterhouse of the stockyard of Kha, made by the butcher luwy.”

A large cemetery and several tombs made from rocks were found. The graves of two cows or bulls were oddly discovered in a room in addition to a person who had his arms down to his sides and a rope tied around his knees. According to the statement, work is being conducted on the tombs and perhaps they’ll even find treasure in them.

Zahi Hawass, who is an Egyptian archaeologist and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs and  led the mission, noted how significant this discovery was, “Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it.”

The lost city is the most significant Egyptian find since King Tut’s tomb was discovered.

It is believed that the city was founded by King Amenhotep III (the ninth king of Egypt’s 18^th dynasty) who ruled the country between the years 1391 and 1352 BC. It was then later used by King Tut, followed by King Ay.

The archaeologists were able to date the city around 3,000 years old based on hieroglyphic inscriptions that were discovered on wine vessels, pottery, scarabs, rings, and mud bricks that contained seals with King Amenhotep III’s cartouche.

Additional excavations should reveal much more about this ancient “lost golden city”. (Pictures of the city and some of the items found can be seen here.)

“Bacteriological Warfare in the United States” is a fascinating FBI document that was declassified into the public domain in 2006, via the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. It covers the years 1941 to 1950. Notably, of the file’s original 1,783 pages, no less than 1,074 were firmly withheld from declassification by the FBI (since 2006, however, more of those pages have surfaced). The file reveals a wealth of illuminating and disturbing data on animal disease and death, and their potential, theoretical links to bacteriological warfare and sabotage by enemy nations and individuals. In a strange and winding way, the story the file tells has a bearing on the theme of this book. Much of the dossier is focused on a series of mysterious and suspicious outbreaks of disease – and attendant death – in Lincoln County, New Mexico in the 1940s, which is the very same county where the Roswell event occurred in early July 1947. Not only that, as will soon become clear, there is even a Japanese balloon link to the Lincoln County outbreak.

In late 1950, the New Mexico State Public Health Laboratory sent a memo to the FBI which read as follows: “Possibly some of you saw headlines in newspapers published in the States during August, such as ‘Black Death Stirs Albuquerque,’ ‘Black Plague Hits Two in New Mexico,’ and ‘Dark Age Plague Found in Two.’ It is unfortunate that we must still seriously discuss plague, for we already know so much about its cause and mode of spread; but as long as such headlines do occur, it is necessary that we who are interested in Public Health and Preventive Medicine do seriously consider plague and acquaint ourselves with the plague of today, its prevalence, and its potentialities.”

Nick Redfern

The FBI was particularly worried about the New Mexico outbreaks and recorded the following: “The New Mexico Public Health Authority has been on the alert for cases of plague since 1938 when the U.S. Public Health Service first reported plague in the wild rodents of one of our counties. There was no suggestion of human infection until August 1, 1949, when the Laboratory received a request for aid in the diagnosis of two cases. A slide made from material aspirated from an axillary bubo [swelling of the lymph nodes] of a ten-year-old boy of Taos County was first received. Late on August 1, 1949, the pathologist at the Veteran’s Hospital in Albuquerque called stating that a man from Placitas, Sandoval County, had been admitted to the hospital and his clinical symptoms resembled plague. The cases were from areas 200 miles apart with no connection. The little boy of Taos probably received his infection from a bit of a flea escaped from the body of a prairie dog which he killed by throwing a stone. The man from Sandoval probably received his infection from fleas from ground squirrels that he had killed while working on his farm.

“These two New Mexico cases of human plague are good examples of what might be expected considering the reservoir of plague infection in the wild rodents of the western states. Very possibly there are undiagnosed human cases in New Mexico and other states with widely scattered population.” A further document from this particular collection of formerly classified papers provides this: “Since this report was written, a 7 ½ year-old-boy in Lincoln County died, possibly of plague. The boy was taken to a physician at Fort Stanton, November 4. Apparently he was not in a very serious condition and was sent home. He was returned to the Fort Stanton Hospital November 5 in the morning; his temperature was somewhat higher; by noon he was markedly worse, and by 2:30 he was dead. A post mortem examination was made and the doctor in charge diagnosed the case as being bubonic plague with pneumonic and septicemic complications. Portions of the organs were sent to [name deleted] at the Western Communicable Disease Laboratory in San Francisco; and he confirmed the child was probably infected by ectoparasites from tree squirrels. A clear history could not be obtained, but dead tree squirrels were found in the barn and near the dwelling of this child.”

As a result of all this disturbing activity, the FBI turned its attention towards securing as many newspaper articles as possible that had been published on the subject of plague and other, potentially fatal, conditions in New Mexico. There was, for example, “Lea Rabbits Suspected Bubonic Plague Carriers,” which appeared in the pages of the Albuquerque Journal on June 21, 1950. Now, we come to an even more eye-opening series of revelations on this issue. So concerned was the FBI by these various outbreaks of plague in New Mexico in 1949, J. Edgar Hoover took secret steps to share all of the pertinent medical data – and media articles, too – with a fistful of agencies of the government and the military. They included the U.S. Air Force’s Director of Special Investigations, the Director of Naval Intelligence, the Acting Director of the Division of Security of the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Director of the CIA. The most important point of all will now be revealed. It demonstrates precisely why a wide and varied body of intelligence agencies were carefully, and secretly, monitoring this situation.

Polyethylene hot air balloon

Additional files on this issue surfaced after the FBI’s release of material in 2006; this time, from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. There was a school of thought within certain factions of the AFOSI that while the plague deaths very likely resulted from flea bites and attacks by infected animals, the plague itself may have been deliberately released in Lincoln County, New Mexico, by nothing less than…a Japanese balloon. Probably in 1945, it was surmised – which was when the Fugo raids were at their height. The theory was that due to the small, isolated, human populations in some of the areas where plague broke out, it may have taken several years before the plague took hold in the animal population and then jumped to people – and also a couple of years for the wreckage to be found in the massive wilds of New Mexico. The shared, secret files also reveal that some authorities believed – years later and with the benefit of hindsight – that the initial outbreak in Lincoln County was caused by the Hantavirus, which was first acknowledged by the West in the early 1950s and at the height of the Korean War.

Of greatest importance, however, is a document titled “Japanese Balloon Raids – 1945” which was found in the archives of what, in the 1940s, was called Camp Detrick. Today, it goes by the name of Fort Detrick. Located in Maryland, the facility is at the forefront of research into bacteriological warfare, chemical warfare, and lethal viruses. The document postulates that in 1945 a Japanese Fugo balloon came down somewhere in Lincoln County and unleashed a deadly cargo of plague-infected insects – such as fleas – and which eventually took hold, leading to the unfortunate death of the young boy at Fort Stanton, four years later.

Now, we come to another aspect of the Fort Stanton connection. Moving into the 1970s and the 1980s, we have intriguing information from John A. Price, of the Roswell-based UFO Enigma Museum, and the author of a 1997 non-fiction book, Roswell: A Quest for the Truth. On one particular day in 1978, Price – who was employed as a roofer at the time – was working outside on a particular property in Hagerman. It’s a town situated approximately twenty-four miles from Roswell. The property held a number of physically handicapped children – this much was clear to Price, as several such children exited the property and stood on the patio, watching him as he worked. He thought, “this must be a home for the mentally impaired.” That was not all, however. Price had more to say: “Suddenly, I almost choked on my coffee as two more children, or at least I think they were children, walked out and stood behind the others.” According to Price, they were all around four- to four-and-a-half-feet in height. They had oversized, hairless heads, and their ears and noses were noticeably smaller than normal for a young child. Things came to a sudden end when, Price recalls, “a lady came to the door and ushered the kids back into the house.” He did not see them again.

More than a decade later, Price received a letter from “an acquaintance” who he had known for some time. Price said: ““In the letter he told me that the aliens I was looking for were at Fort Stanton.” For those who may not know, Fort Stanton is a facility that, during the Second World War, held a number of Japanese “enemy aliens” (as they were termed) and is barely spitting distance away from the Foster Ranch. As this, and the data in my 2017 book, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, shows, there is a complicated connection between all of these issues: handicapped people; secret, high-altitude balloons; and top secret post-Second Wold War programs to bring German and Japanese personnel into the USA. A grim story is getting even more so.