When investigating physical contactee cases we are
faced with one very special and controversial issue. How do we know the
visitors are what they claim to be? My favourite heretic among ufologists, John
Keel put it this way: ”Suppose a strange metallic disk covered with flashing
colored lights settled in your backyard and a tall man in a one-piece silver
space suit got out. Suppose he looked unlike any man you had ever seen before,
and when you asked him where he was from, he replied, "I am from Venus.
" Would you argue with him?” (Operation Trojan Horse, p. 214). From the
early 1950s there has been on ongoing discussion whether some ”space people”
may actually be foreign spies. This is the theme of the latest book from the
pen of prolific author Nick Redfern: Flying Saucers From the Kremlin.
In an article in New York Daily News April 4, 1957
zoologist and Fortean Ivan T. Sanderson said: ”Some of these who tell such
stories can´t be dismissed as liars, psychotics or conscious charlatans… So
there is a definite possibility that some form a craft have landed here,
unknown to the authorities.” It is no surprise that the FBI and various
intelligence agencies in the 1950s became concerned about the claims of the
early UFO contactees. Daniel Fry helped his alien visitor Alan to find work
covertly as an international businessman while engaged in work for peace. Howard
Menger and George Van Tassel used secret code words to identify the real space
people and their homes sometimes functioned as safe houses for the alien
visitors. Obviously communist spies realized very early on that the contactee
movement was an ideal community to infiltrate. In his book Nick Redfern give
several examples of this hidden work.
In his introduction Redfern writes: ”In the latter
part of the 1940s, the Soviet Union embarked on a program designed to use the
UFO phenomenon as a dangerous weapon. Not by attacking us with real flying
saucers, But, by using the lore, the legend, and the belief-systems that
surround the UFO subject. And, in the process, hoping to provoke hysteria and
paranoia in the western world.” Rumors that Stalin was the driving force behind
some UFO events started already with the Roswell case. According to Alfred O´Donnell,
an elite engineer from Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier, EG&G, the craft
and the crew at Roswell originated from the Soviet Union and was a manipulative
plot to make the U.S. Government think that an alien invasion was underway leading
to a state of fear and terror in the United States.
In the early 1950s FBI informants hinted that some
of leading contactees could actually be closet communists used by the Russians
in psychological warfare-based operations. FBI began investigating och keeping
an eye on George Adamski, George Van Tassel, Orfeo Angelucci a.o. Because of a
few statements about Russia and war made by Adamski early in his public
appearances Nick Redfern imply communist motives. Citing author Colin Bennett he
writes: ”They collectively suggest Adamski may actually have had some genuine
alien encounters, but chose to combine the nature of those encounters his
personal admiration for communism and the Russians.” But this conclusion must
be regarded as definitely wrong. I have never found any later statements by
Adamski indicating an ”admiration for communism”. In Messengers of Deception
Jacques Vallee suggested that George Adamski and George Hunt Williamson
harbored fascist ideas because of Williamsons connection with William Dudley
Pelley. George
Adamski never met Pelley and certainly never endorsed his prewar fascist ideas.
Williamson did work for Pelley´s magazine Valor a few months in 1954 but his
interest in Pelley was the channelled material he had presented in books such
as Star Guests (1950). There is a tendency among many authors to project
political extremist views on the early contactees based on very little
evidence. Unfortunately Nick Redfern falls into this trap in his estimation of
George Adamski.
Definitely better documented is the chapter on Orfeo
Angelucci, A Subversive Element, who actually was contacted by a group of
communists. During his lecturing on the east coast in the middle of the 1950s
Angelucci was approached by a group of four people who bought him dinner on
three occasions in plush New York hotels and bars. He was flattered by their
attention but felt very uneasy about their motives until he realised that the
group attempted to ”convert me to communism and slant my talks along the Party
Line”. When Angelucci refused to go along with their plans the tone became
distinctly unpleasant and it was hinted that ”things might become extremely
difficult for Angelucci”. He related all the details of the affair and threats to
the FBI.
Orfeo Angelucci
How much was and is the international UFO movement
used or influenced by communist agents? This is of course a tricky question to
answer. According to a man named Charles Samwick, who had a background in
counter-intelligence work for the U.S. Army, ”The Communist Party has planted
an agent in every civilian saucer club in the United States.” This information
was disclosed to ufologist James Moseley in 1955. Nick Redfern documents
several instances of possible communist infiltration in UFO groups in countries like Great
Britain, Australia and New Zealand, including the controversial Ummo affair. In the final chapter Nick Redfern adress the
important question: ”does this strange game of aliens, disinformation and lies
still continue in today´s world?” His answer is ”certainly”, providing
information even indicating that the Majestic 12 documents could have a Russian
origin.
In my extensive investigation and documentation of
the Swedish contactee Richard Höglund I advanced as an alternative theory that
the story was a cover for Russian espionage. Richard was during a phase in his
life a card-carrying member of the Swedish Communist party. He was told by the
aliens to start a peace movement and was once asked to provide maps of the
Muskö Naval Base, a Swedish underground naval facility south of Stockholm. Richard
also translated secret codes on paper for the aliens. He was definitely incontact with a group alien visitors but whether Russian agents interfered in
his operations is difficult to determine.
Richard Höglund in Nassau, Bahamas 1968
