This Project was a  cover for Project Aquarius. The May Bell Project is described in document AD 514939L (Proceedings of the MAY BELL Technical Workshop of 18-22 May 1970) like:
 

Background
 Irrevocably connected to the Paul Bennewitz case is a document which has been called many things including "bogus." It is usually known as either "The Aquarius Document," or "The NASA (or NSA) Telex." The name of a supposedly highly secret UFO related project, "Aquarius" appears in the unverifiable Telex:

:

California researcher William L. (Bill) Moore first had the Telex. He has claimed that he received the telex from U.S. government agents in February, 1981, and that the Telex as we know it is a "retyped" (changed) version of an original message Moore had been shown earlier. New York Attorney Peter Gersten made the document public later that year. 

Interested researchers then tried to verify or refute the Telex and the information in it.  FOIA requests produced information indicating that the Telex was not a legitimate government cable, at least in the form it was distributed.  Whether or not the telex was a total fabrication remains unknown, but many  if not most, researchers now believe it to be. Although much of the information in the Telex has been shown to be incorrect or false, certain items therein have some validity.  It was this aspect of the Telex that most interested us: how much of the information in the Telex was correct and how did come to be so.  This article addresses our pursuit of "Project Aquarius."

Late in 1985, researcher Chris Lambright received an FOIA response letter from the National Security Agency (NSA) in reply to his query about three project names. Two of the projects were dismissed ion the reply, but Project Aquarius was treated separately and differently.  The NSA FOIA letter asked for $15,000 up front to perform a Project Aquarius records search with no promise of results. This was a tantalizing suggestion of possible substance in Project Aquarius.

Lambright then requested the "goals" of Project Aquarius. The NSA replied that 'even the release of the project name could reasonably be expected to cause grave damage to the national security,' and therefore was properly classified. This language was straight out of the section on the Top Secret classification of the Executive Order which established the classification system, Executive Order 12356.  Confirmation! Project Aquarius existed and was classified Top Secret!

Despite repeated attempts through the FOIA over the intervening years, nothing more about Project Aquarius was obtained from the NSA.

In 1996 we decided to take another tack in our pursuit of Project Aquarius.  Although earlier FOIA requests citing information published in 1990 by Bill Moore and Jaime Shandera were unsuccessful, using this information, we were finally able to produce significant documentation on a Project Aquarius conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).  This broke a long silence on the matter.  The nagging question is when and how did William Moore (or the fabricators of the Telex) know of this project and it's name - or did he?

DARPA Project Aquarius Documents Released

• AD 507423 Project AQUARIUS Quarterly Report, 2 March 1970 (EDL-6900)
• AD 513725 Project AQUARIUS Special Report (EDL-M1380)
• AD 509068 Project AQUARIUS Annual Report, 1 June 1970
• AD 515288L Project AQUARIUS Final Report (EDL-E184)
• AD 514939L Proceedings of the MAY BELL Technical Workshop of 18-22 May 1970.

Project MAY BELL, the umbrella project under which Aquarius existed, is described in the Executive summary to report AD514939L as:

"...directed towards ocean surveillance and tactical early warning and is investigating the feasibility of detecting and tracking aircraft, missiles, ships and submarines at over-the-horizon distances using high frequency monostatic and bistatic radar."

Further Efforts - NSA

Of course we appealed the NSA denial.  A few additional tidbits of information were contained in the NSA response letter dated 27 November 1997.

We learn that the material NSA is withholding from release "... describes an NSA database coincidentally called Aquarius." And it "...does not relate to Defense Advance Projects Agency (DARPA) records pertaining to a Project Aquarius as released by the Department of Defense (DoD), nor does it relate to any other DoD project.  It is not a Project Aquarius document."  This is further to previous NSA assertions that their Aquarius is "...not UFO-related."

Analysis and Comment

Is Project Aquarius UFO-Related?

Does this mean that the Top Secret NSA Aquarius material isn't UFO related either? Although we do not know for sure, NSA has claimed that it is not.

It is plausible that the high NSA classification is intended to protect installations, intelligence sources and methods of intelligence collection. These are the exemptions claimed by NSA to justify non-disclosure. These arguments are weakened by the passage of  years and by the openness initiatives taken by the U.S. Government in recent times.

The Telex, supposedly part of a government disinformation campaign run on Paul Bennewitz, could not be verified through normal channels, yet contained some correct information of a secret nature. How could this come to be?  Although "Aquarius" could be a random choice for a project name by those who fabricated the Telex, the situation fits perfectly with the definition of disinformation:

Deliberately misleading information announced publicly or leaked by a government or especially by an intelligence agency in order to influence public opinion or the government...

If the use of "Aquarius" was part of a disinformation effort, then those who created the Telex would have had to have knowledge of classified government information.

The Telex mentions "MJ TWELVE" in the same sentence as "Project Aquarius." Since the Telex predated the release of the original MJ-12 papers, it is our opinion that the creators of the Telex designed it as groundwork for the later release of the MJ-12 briefing document. There is no indication in the DoD released reports of any association with "MJ-12" or any UFO related matters, and the NSA asserts that their Aquarius is nor UFO related.

How Many Projects Aquarius?

And Then There Were Two...
 Until we received the DARPA Project Aquarius material and the most recent FOIA reply letter from the National Security Agency, we could not be sure whether more than one Project Aquarius exists or existed. This question plagued us and other researchers for more than a decade.

While it is true that Department of Defense project names are assigned from a register and are not duplicated, and the U.S. Air Force insists that project names are not duplicated, NSA informs us that "NSA database and project names are not obtained from a coordinated DoD registry..."  This leaves the possibility open for more agencies which also do not use the DoD coordinated name registry using the name Aquarius. 

We've located two agencies holding documents related to "Aquarius," we suppose it's possible there are, or were,  more.

Classification Levels

As mentioned above, the wording of one of the early NSA FOIA responses: "...can reasonably be expected to cause grave damage to the national security..." is verbatim from (now superseded) Executive Order 12356 for the classification level of Top Secret.  A direct statement in a NSA response letter reveal that the classification level of the NSA Aquarius "database" has been reduced to Secret, but it still remains classified.

Conclusion?

If the still withheld NSA Aquarius information is not UFO-related, then the inclusion of the name "Aquarius" in the Telex was either an effective diversionary disinformation tactic, or a random selection by the creators of the bogus 1980 Telex.  A close shave with Occam's razor might suggest the later, but the question of by what mechanism did the creators of the Telex obtain the name of an (at the time) classified project remains open.

NOTES:

• Material attributed to William Moore and/or Jaime Sandera are from The MJ-12 Documents, An Analytical Report by William L. Moore and Jaime Shandera, The Fair Witness Project Inc., 1990 
• Background material may be found in: 
•  Chris Lambright's fine series: Intrusions on Sandia...
•  The Ice Documents Press Conference

And in FOCUS, Vol.4 (New series): Issue 4-5-6, June 30, 1989, Fair Witness Project, Inc., (single edition)

C  U  F  O  N^SM
The Computer UFO Network
http://www.cufon.org/
http://www.cufon.org/cufon/Aquarius/aquarius.htm#reports

A twenty-two year-old man is supposedly abducted from a forest in east central Arizona, and his six friends are arrested and charged with his murder. The United States Air Force retrieves alien technology from a downed UFO, and installs it in experimental aircraft. Several men and women, suffering from severe exhaustion and disorientation, report the loss of significant amounts of time from their daily routine that cannot be otherwise explained. The remains for four alien bodies are recovered from the wreckage of a flying saucer, and then hidden at a nearby Air Force Base. And a middle class family is terrorized by alien abductors in their upstate New York cabin. 

Excerpts from "The X-Files" episode guide? Not exactly. Even though the Federal Bureau of Investigation does not routinely assign agents to probe unsolved cases dealing with UFOs and alien abduction, the stories which form the basis of the hit television series are taken from actual accounts and documentation of unexplained phenomenon. In fact, the thousands of documents on UFOs and alien abduction, compiled by agencies like the FBI and released under provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, provide accounts that are far more bizarre and intriguing than those investigated by Mulder and Scully. The truth is not only out there, but much more interesting than the weekly excursions into fantasy.

The pilot episode of "The X-Files" establishes several important details about the background of the two lead characters, and their assignment with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Agent Fox Mulder is an Oxford-trained psychologist with a photographic memory who earned the nickname "Spooky" from his fellow classmates at the FBI Academy because of his uncanny ability to process information and leap ahead to logical conclusions. During his first three years with the Bureau, while working as a crack analyst in the behavioral sciences department, he stumbled upon a collection of unsolved cases dealing with unexplained phenomena. Agent Dana Scully, a medical doctor with an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Maryland, is skeptical of anything paranormal, choosing to believe that everything has a logical and scientific explanation. While their characters are clearly fictional, they do epitomize the finer qualities of a Bureau operative. Most agents are highly educated, possess multiple degrees, demonstrate superior problem-solving skills and exhibit keen resourcefulness.

GOVERNMENT COVER-UPS

Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully routinely probe cases involving UFOs and alien abduction as part of their duties with the Violent Crimes Division. Their assignments often put them at odds with other intelligence agencies, notably the National Security Agency (NSA) and the yet-as-unnamed organization to which the Smoking Man belongs. Over the years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has cooperated with local jurisdictions and other federal agencies in the study of unexplained phenomenon, but it does not maintain a special section or taskforce for that study. In fact, the FBI has been routinely left out of the intelligence loop, and often discouraged from taking on such assignments. In April 1973, for instance, the Bureau was asked to launch an intensive investigation, following a series of cattle mutilations in Iowa, but the FBI was actually reluctant to get involved. Director Clarence M. Kelley stated that "the investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects is not and never has been a matter that is within the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI." While the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in several earlier studies, most notably Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting of nine disk-shaped objects over the Cascade Mountains in 1947, its authority has repeatedly been superseded by the venue of other intelligence organizations.

One of the earliest government agencies to examine the sightings of UFOs was the United States Air Force, under the code name Project Sign. Project Sign (later renamed Project Saucer) investigated hundreds of reports and gathered tons of physical evidence before giving way to another, far more important project. Project Grudge, also attached to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright Field, took a much more negative approach to the issue of flying saucers. During the same period, President Truman formed a special intelligence group, code-named "Majestic-12," to investigate Unidentified Flying Objects, and report its findings to the President. The group was comprised of a dozen top scientists, researchers and military leaders, and had an intelligence rating higher than those making the hydrogen bomb. Under government auspices, a number of other projects were established to study the question of extraterrestrials. Project Garnet studied the evolution of man on earth, and how that evolution was affected or related to aliens. Project Sigma, a forerunner of SETI, dealt with alien communication, while Project Snowbird researched the development and use of alien technology. The most secretive of studies, Project Gleem (later renamed Project Aquarius), was devoted to the accumulation of data about alien life forms.

When President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower was first briefed by Majestic-12 about the remains of four alien bodies and the wreckage of a flying saucer, the issue of disinformation was raised. The crash at Roswell, New Mexico, had been bungled, and far too many civilians were asking questions. As a result, a new, low-level effort by the Air Force replaced Project Grudge. Project Blue Book was formed to gather and control information, and at times mislead the public by explaining away as many reports as possible. MJ-12 and Project Aquarius continued to provide government leaders with the true findings. In subsequent years, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency have assumed control of most investigations under the mantle of national security. Even the Joint Chiefs of Staff, through the Pentagon's National Military Command Center, has its own secret command structure to deal with UFO issues. Chris Carter's "Smoking Man," undoubtedly a founding member of MJ-12 or one of these other arcane organizations, represents a synthesis of all of the government power-brokers who are determined to keep UFOs a secret.

The "back story," which sustains much of the tension and paranoia in the television series, suggests that these top secret organizations have been deliberately concealing information about UFOs and alien abduction from the public. This contention is not a new one, and has been raised repeatedly since "flying saucers" first made headlines throughout the world in 1947. But far too many people have actually witnessed or experienced some type of unexplained phenomenon, or know someone who has, to perpetuate this charade. The official denials by the Government of the United States have given rise to the suspicion that not only is the public being told less than the truth but also a massive cover-up has suppressed the overwhelming evidence that UFOs are real. Agent Fox Mulder's paranoia is merely a reflection of the mistrust that most people feel towards the government.

Daniel E. Keyhoe's The Flying Saucer Conspiracy (Henry Holt & Company, 1955) first exposed key information about the Air Force Project Sign and the Majestic-12 group forty years ago to an innocent America. Larry Fawcett and Barry Greenwood's Clear Intent: The Government Cover-up of the UFO Experience (Prentice-Hall, 1984) and Timothy Good's  Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-up (Morrow, 1988) both reveal a massive conspiracy on the part of the United States government and other governments to cover-up information about alien landings and abductions. In fact, their use of the more than 10,000 pages of Freedom of Information Act documents about UFOs that are now in the hands of the public detail exactly how the various agencies have conspired to obscure the facts. Some of those controversial reports have been reworked by the writers of The X-Files into some of the show's finest hours.

In the episode "Deep Throat" (9/17/93), Fox Mulder and Dana Scully's investigation into the disappearance of a test pilot at Ellens Air Force Base, Idaho, leads to the inescapable conclusion that the military is experimenting with alien technology. Not far from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, about eighty miles north-northwest of Las Vegas, extremely advanced and unconventional aircraft have been seen traversing the skies over a top secret site known as "Area 51" (or "Dreamland"). According to a mysterious Colonel "L," who was stationed there in 1970, and Robert Lazar, a former employee, the facility has at least three captured UFOs, two nearly complete and one dismantled. Designated Project Red Light (or simply "Red Light"), the military has been supposedly researching the development and implementation of gravity-drive systems, flying saucer designs, advanced stealth technology and alien weaponry. In fact, one of the operational UFOs was said to have exploded in flight with two American test pilots aboard. Whether the facility really studies UFOs or not, two undeniable facts are true. Workers are flown to and from the site aboard a chartered Boeing 737 originating at McCarron Airport every day. And curiosity seekers in the Groom Dry Lake area are routinely searched and turned away by armed security teams.

According to another classified report, the military recovered three alien spacecraft from the Southwestern United States. In 1947, near Roswell, New Mexico, officials from the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office (including Major Jess Marcel) retrieved wreckage, which was scattered over a three-quarter mile area, of a flying saucer. While the cover story of a weather balloon was used to obscure an earlier press leak, the actual debris was loaded on a B-29 and flown to Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson AFB) in Dayton, Ohio, for study. Two years later, not far from the Roswell site, the wreckage of another alien craft was discovered, and immediately hidden from the public. In 1958, the United States recovered a third alien spacecraft from the Utah desert. The craft was in excellent flying condition, and had been mysteriously abandoned by its occupants. When examined by a group of scientists, the instrumentation was so complex that none of them could fully comprehend its operation. Shortly thereafter, funds were not only appropriated by Project Snowbird to begin a more intensive study but also to contact the aliens who had abandoned their craft. In "Fallen Angel" (11/19/93), Mulder investigates the government cover-up of a UFO crash site, and discovers that the military is trying to bring in a UFO enthusiast who might have vital information about a recovered spacecraft. Fact or fiction?

When a downed UFO crashes near Iraqi airspace, in the episode "E.B.E." (2/18/94), Agents Mulder and Scully track an unmarked truck, carrying an extraterrestrial occupant, to its destination at an airbase. According to reports, the United States Government has not only recovered bodies but also captured a real-life ET. In 1977, a top secret document from ORCON (Dissemination and Extraction of Information Controlled by Originator) was made public during the Carter Administration. The document revealed that one alien (called an E.B.E., or Extraterrestrial Biological Entity) survived the second crash in New Mexico (in 1949), and was thoroughly interrogated by military personnel at a secret airbase. The E.B.E. disclosed, before its death of an unexplained illness in 1952, that it came from a planet in the Zeta Reticula star system, and that its social structure was thousands of years ahead of our own. The alien's body was frozen, like those earlier ones from Roswell, and transported to another facility for study. Project Bando, established in 1949 by the military to collect and evaluate medical information about E.B.E.s, allowed scientists and medical researchers to dissect the alien bodies. Soon after the experiments, contact was established with two other E.B.E.s, and both were invited as guests to live in secret at the base.

Project Sign's Report #13 also disclosed that as many as sixteen bodies were found at a separate site in Aztec, New Mexico, in 1948. Dr. Detlev Bronk, a physiologist and biophysicist, was brought in to conduct an autopsy on one of the aliens. The gray figure, which was about four feet in height with large slanted eyes and long pointy ears, confirmed many suspicions scientists had about the origins and evolution of life on earth. Bronk and his colleagues also removed extraterrestrial DNA to see if there was any evidence to confirm genetic manipulation. (Several researchers suspect that aliens may been manipulating our own gene pool to create the best human.) All of the bodies were then frozen by Dr. Paul Scherer, a cryogenics specialist, and transported aboard three trucks covered with tarpaulins marked "explosives." In "The Erlenmeyer Flask" (5/13/94), Fox Mulder stumbles upon a plot in which the government is experimenting on human subjects with extraterrestrial DNA. Incredible as that story may seem, the government has been conducting its own genetic tests for nearly fifty years. 

ALIEN ABDUCTIONS

Tales of alien abduction and missing time--often the most shocking and frightening encounters with the unknown--have formed the basis of five out of the forty-plus episodes of "The X-Files." In the Pilot episode, for example, viewers are told that Fox Mulder's fascination with the paranormal dates back to a childhood incident when he was twelve. Apparently, through hypnosis and deep regressive therapy, he has learned that he witnessed the alien abduction of his eight year-old sister Samantha from their home in Chilmark, Mass. His drive to solve these unusual cases of alien abduction is related to a desire to mentally put to rest his sister's cries for help for which he was too paralyzed as a child with fear to respond. This fictional account of Samantha Mulder's disappearance seems to have been inspired by the night siege experienced by author Whitley Strieber. Strieber writes in Communion (William Morrow, 1987) and Transformation (William Morrow, 1988) that he and his family were terrorized by an extraterrestrial force at their cabin in the woods of upstate New York.

Of course, close encounters of the third kind, the term originated by Dr. J. Allen Hynek to which they are more commonly referred, are not that unusual. They have been documented, discussed, analyzed, seemingly debunked and re-examined for overly thirty-five years. The most famous case of alien abduction and missing time centers around Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On the night of September 19-20, 1961, the Hills were returning to their home from a vacation in Niagara Falls when they experienced a bright light above U.S. Route 3. They pulled off the road, and Barney went out onto a field near Indian Head to observe a UFO at close range. Two hours and thirty-five miles later, the Hills were again traveling on the highway with no conscious recollection of what had happened. The couple soon realized that they were missing time from their trip, but it would be over two years later, under intensive hypno-therapy, that Betty and Barney Hill would discover they had been abducted and studied by aliens. Their story has been retold a number of times, most notably in John Fuller's book The Interrupted Journey (Dial Press, 1966) and a popular tele-film.

The dramatic situation in the Pilot episode, dealing with the abduction of several high school classmates in Oregon, seems influenced by the real-life drama of Betty and Barney Hill and other, more recent accounts of alien abduction. Budd Hopkins, probably the foremost investigator of abductions, wrote the highly-regarded study Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions (New York: Richard Marek, 1981), in which he interviewed hundreds of people who had experienced the unusual phenomenon of lost time. Chris Carter must have been familiar enough with each of these cases to provide the basis for not only his Bellefleur abductions but also for Mulder and Scully's missing nine minutes. Since then, Mulder has lost additional time in "Deep Throat,"" E.B.E." and "Little Green Men," while Scully has lost an indeterminate amount of time in "E.B.E." and approximately three months in "Ascension/One Breath."

Similarly, the well-documented abduction of Travis Walton, the basis of several books (one written by Walton himself in 1978) and the motion picture Fire In the Sky (1993), drives the fictional nightmares of the tormented protagonist in "Duane Barry" (10/14/94). Walton, a twenty- two year-old woodcutter with the U.S. Forest Service, was abducted on November 5, 1975, in plain view of his six co-workers (who were subsequently charged with his murder). Five days later, Travis awoke a quarter mile west of Heber, Arizona, and began experiencing nightmares of such unspeakable horror that he sought out a therapist. After months of regressive hypnosis, he remembered being strapped to a table aboard the spacecraft and being tortured by the inhabitants with strange medical instruments. Polygraph and Psychological Stress Evaluator tests have established that he told the truth. Coincidentally, Travis' brother was named Duane.

In "Conduit" (10/1/93), a divorcee who claims to have seen a flying saucer as a child tells Mulder and Scully that her teenage daughter was abducted while on a recent camping trip. This episode clearly smacks of two other, well-documented abduction cases. In 1973, Pat Roach, a divorced woman living alone with her two daughters, was taken aboard a craft standing in the empty field next to her house. Once inside the craft, she was separated from her children, taken to a small medical room and given a gynecological examination by one of the alien creatures. Her daughters, Bonnie and Debbie, were also placed on a machine, and given a full exam. All three were then returned to their home. Another account, taken from 1967, tells of a woman's abduction from her home in South Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Betty Andreasson was abducted from her kitchen, while her seven children, mother and father were placed into suspended animation. During Betty's abduction, her eleven-year-old daughter Becky was revived momentarily as part of the study. Betty was then examined and returned, unharmed, to her home. Both accounts were thoroughly investigated by UFO experts, and deemed credible. Volumes and volumes of voice transcripts, documents, and supplementary materials further substantiate the claims by these and dozens of other individuals that alien abductions are real.

OTHER UFO ENCOUNTERS

In addition to the various sightings the United States Government has tried to suppress, or simply explain away, and the eye-witness accounts of alien abductions, many others have had encounters with UFOs. A recent survey, in fact, finds that more Americans believe in the existence of flying saucers and extraterrestrials than do not. That popular belief in UFOs has fueled a number of other episodes of "The X-Files." 

In "Little Green Men" (9/16/94), Mulder travels to an abandoned SETI program site in Puerto Rico with the hopes of contacting aliens. For years, the giant radio telescope at the Observatory of Arecibo has been transmitting coded messages to the stars. Not surprisingly, Puerto Rico has been the main focal point of dozens of UFO sightings dating back to the Fifties. In 1956, local residents reported seeing several disc-shaped craft in the airspace above Laguna Cartagena. In 1964, Quintin Ramirez had a close encounter with a flying saucer outside his home, not far from the location of the other sightings. The wave of sightings in 1980 culminated in a powerful aerial collision between unidentified craft near Cabo Rojo in 1981 that was witnessed by hundreds of spectators. Most recently, ten carloads of witnesses reported seeing five alien beings walking along the road. When one of the cars stopped, the aliens scrambled into the dense tropical rain forest nearby a military complex, long rumored to have played host to visiting E.B.E.s.

A former astronaut in "Space" (11/12/93) claims to be haunted by something he encountered during an earlier spacewalk in a truly chilling episode. Over the years, astronauts and test pilots have logged some of the most convincing reports of UFO sightings. Back in 1962, there were no less than four different accounts. John Glenn, while piloting his Mercury capsule, told Cape Canaveral officials that he saw three objects follow and then overtake him at varying speeds. Similarly, Scott Carpenter reported seeing firefly-like objects, and even managed to photograph one. Test pilots Joe Walton and Robert White detected UFOs during several flights in the X-15, and shot several rolls of film. In 1964, James McDivitt claimed he saw a cylindrical object in the same object as his Gemini IV spacecraft. Both Frank Borman and Jim Lovell reported a bogie on their flight, and photographed twin oval-shaped UFOs with glowing undersides. Even Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin said they saw a UFO chase their craft shortly before their historic moon landing. Recent reports by Shuttle astronauts have added to the sightings, but none of the photographs, possessed by NASA, have ever been released for publication.

Fact may well be stranger than fiction, if not always as easily accessible. Chris Carter, the creator of "The X-Files," reminds us all that the truth is out there, buried in the tens of thousands of reports, voice transcripts, photographs, maps, drawings and other documentation that the United States Government has under lock and key. May be one day, if our bureaucracy ever deems us mature enough, we will all know the truth. Until then, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully will have to stand as our fictional champions of the truth about alien abductions, government conspiracies and UFO encounters.

Copyright 1994 by Dr. John L. Flynn

This article about the "Carter Document" has been edited several times by both Robert M. Collins and "ORTK Editor". This article is a somewhat pre-sequel to the "Yellow Book" article I placed a few days ago. That article had references to this one.

This piece has been provided by Robert M. Collins. All text edited by him is copyrighted by him.
 

[ORTK Editor's Note: The following transcript of an alleged MJ-12 briefing provided to then President Jimmy Carter has been provided by researcher Lee Graham, a recipient of the document. Graham states that he received the document on June 13, 1991 from researcher William Moore, with the permission of a Defense Intelligence Agency official code-named "Falcon," a member of the "aviary." These notes were allegedly used by a lone MJ-12 briefing officer to provide an oral briefing to President Carter at the White House on June 14, 1977. We(ORTK) are republishing the contents of this document based on letters to Mr. Graham from the Department of Energy and the Air Force Operations Test and Command informing him that the document is "not classified" (and apparently genuine), except for the cover page, which contains a still-classified symbol (see the cover page preceding the transcript). Readers should understand that the authenticity of this document remains in question and should draw their own conclusions on reading the text below. Explanatory notes are included in parentheses and in bold print.]

[Robert Collins' Notes 08-12-96: From all the checking that this side has done the "Carter document" in question is not a legitimately classified government document. But, from government intelligence sources it is a "reconstruction" of a briefing given to then President Carter on 77/06/14. The briefing was "reconstructed" from a number of independent sources who attended it. By these sources sitting down together they were able to pool their notes written down after the briefing and come up with the "reconstruction" shown here. That's why on the originals some of the page numbers were "penned" in: The reader is cautioned that some of the information may be false: Some of it may be disinformation/misinformation and that one should read this with an open mind towards skepticism. One may notice grammar or spelling errors. This I understand was a way of tracking the document: The reader should also be able to notice this in the "MJ-12 documents" as well. Recent source information however has stated that from their review of the "Carter document" that it appears essentially correct.

The White House record on that date indicates that President Carter met with his National Security Adviser Dr Brzezinki: The name "Project Aquarius" is also the same name associated with another "Aquarius" at the National Security Agency or NSA. But, reportedly this Top Secret "Aquarius" has to do with Advanced Communications Theory/Systems and not UFOs. But, NSA was quoted in a letter back on January 27th, 1987 that they knew of an Air Force program named "Aquarius" that had been connected with UFOs. [end notes] 

EXECUTIVE CORRESPONDENCE

EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

SUBJECT:

PROJECT AQUARIUS (TS)

ATTENTION

THIS DOCUMENT WAS PREPARED BY MJ12. MJ12 IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS SUBJECT MATTER

CLASSIFICATION AND RELEASE INSTRUCTIONS

(TS/ORCON) The information contained in this document is classified TOP SECRET with ORCON. (Only the originator may release the information). Only MJ12 has access to Project Aquarius. No other government agency, to include the military has access to the information contained in this briefing. There are only two copies of Project Aquarius and the location is known only to MJ12. This document will be destroyed after the briefing. No notes, photographs, or audio recordings may be made of this briefing.

P R O J EC T  A Q U A R I U S

(TS/ORCON) (PROWORD: DANCE) Contains 16 volumes of documented information collected from the beginning of the United States Investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and Identified Alien Crafts (IAC). The Project was originally established in 1953, by order of President Eisenhower, under control of NSC and MJ12. In 1966, the Project's name was changed from Project Gleem to Project Aquarius. The Project was funded by CIA confidential funds (non-appropriated). The Project was originally classified SECRET but was upgraded to its present classification in Dec. 1969 after Project Blue Book closed. The purpose of Project Aquarius was to collect all scientific, technological, medical, and intelligence information from UFO/IAC sightings, and contacts with Alien life forms. This orderly file of collected information has been used to advanced the United States Space Program.

(TS/ORCON) The proceeding briefing is an historical account of the United States Government's investigation of Aerial Phenomenas, Recovered Alien Aircrafts, and Contacts with Extraterrestrial Life Forms. 

TOP SECRET

History of the National Security Council, 1947-1997

• Eisenhower Administration, 1953-1961 

EXECUTIVE BREIFING

(TS/ORCON) In June 1947, a civilian pilot flying over the Cascade mountains of Washington State observed nine flying discs (later referred to as UFOs). The Commander, Air Force Technical Intelligence Center of the then Army Air Forces became concerned and ordered an inquiry. This was the beginning of the United States involvement with the UFO investigations. In 1947, an aircraft of extraterrestrial origin crashed in the desert of New Mexico. The craft was recovered by the military, four Alien (non-homo-sapiens) bodies were recovered in the wreckage. The Aliens were found to be creatures not related to human beings (Atch 1). 

[Editor's note: None of the referenced attachments were included in the information Lee Graham received.]

In late 1949, another Alien aircraft crashed in the United States and was recovered partially intact by the military. One Alien of extraterrestrial origin survived the crash. The surviving Alien was male and called itself "EBE". The Alien was thoroughly interrogated by military intelligence personnel at a base in New Mexico. The Alien's language was translated by means of picture graphs. It was learned the Alien came from a planet in the Zeta [sic] Reticuli star system, approximately 40 light years from Earth. EBE lived until June 18, 1952, when he died [sic] to an unexplained illness. During the time period EBE was alive, he provided valuable information regarding space technology, origins of the Universe, and exobiological matters. Further data is contained in Atch 2. 

(TS/ORCON) The recovery of Alien aircrafts led the United States on an extensive investigation program to determine whether these Aliens posed a direct threat to our national security. In 1947, the newly created Air Force initiated a program to investigate incidents involving UFOs. The program was operated under three different code names: Grudge, Sign, and finally Blue Book. The original mission of the Air Force program was to collect and analyze all reported sightings or incidents involving UFOs and determine whether the information could be [sic] interrupted as having any bearing on the security of the United States. Some information was evaluated with the idea of using the gained data to advance our own space technology and future space programs. Ninety percent of the estimated 12,000 reports analyzed by the Air Force were considered hoaxes, explained aerial phenomena's, or natural astronomical objects. The other 10 percent were considered legitimate Alien sightings and/or incidents. However, not all UFO sightings or incidents were reported under the Air Force program. In 1953, Project Gleem was initiated by order of President Eisenhower, who believed the UFOs presented a threat to the national security of the United States. Project Gleem, which became Project Aquarius in 1966, was a parallel reporting system for UFO sightings and incidents. Reports collected under Project Aquarius were considered actual sightings of Alien aircrafts or contacts with Alien life forms. Most reports were made by reliable military and Defense Department civilian personnel.
 

(TS/ORCON) In 1958, the United States recovered a third Alien aircraft from the desert of Utah. The aircraft was in excellent flying condition. The aircraft was apparently abandoned by the Aliens for some unexplained reason, since no Alien life forms were found in or around the aircraft. The aircraft was considered a technological marvel by United States scientists. However, the operating instrumentations of the aircraft were so complex that our scientists could not interrupt their operation. The aircraft was stored in a top security area and analyzed throughout the years by our best aerospace scientists. The United States gained a large volume of technological data from the recovered Alien aircraft. A detailed description and further information regarding the aircraft is explained in Atch 3.

(TS/ORCON) Several independent scientific investigations, at the request of the Air Force and CIA, were initiated during the era of Project Blue Book. MJ12 decided that officially, the Air Force should end their investigation of UFOs. This decision was arrived at during the [unreadable] meeting (Atch 4) in 1966. The reason was twofold. First, the United States had established communication with the Aliens. The United States felt relatively sure the Aliens' exploration of Earth was non-aggressive and non-hostile. It was also established that the Aliens' presence did not directly threaten the security of the United States. Secondly, the public was beginning to believe that UFOs were real. The NSC felt this public feeling could lead to nationwide panic. The United States was involved in several sensitive projects during this time period. It was felt that public awareness of these projects would have jeopardized the future space program of the United States. Therefore, MJ12 decided that an independent scientific study of the UFO phenomena would be needed to satisfy public curiosity. The study concluded that sufficient data did not exist that would indicate UFOs threatened the security of the United States. The final conclusion satisfied the government and allowed the Air Force to officially step out of the UFO investigating business.

((TS/ORCON) When the Air Force officially closed Project Blue Book in Dec. 1969, Project Aquarius continued operation under control of NSC/MJ12. The NSC felt investigations of UFO sightings and incidents had to continue in secrecy without any public knowledge. The reasoning behind the decision was this: If the Air Force continued its investigation of UFOs, eventually some uncleared and unbriefed Air Force or Defense Department civilian officials would obtain the facts behind Project Aquarius. Obviously (for operational security reasons) this could not be allowed. In order to continue the investigation of UFO sightings and incidents in secrecy, investigators from CIA/DCD [Editor's Note: One source indicated that DCD possibly refers to a domestic collection function within CIA, illegal under law.] and MJ12 were assigned to military and other governmental agencies with orders to investigate all legitimate UFO/IAC sightings and incidents. These agents are presently operating at various locations throughout the United States and Canada. All reports are filtered either directly or indirectly to MJ12. These agents are collecting reports of UFO/IAC sightings and incidents occurring on or near sensitive governmental installations. [Rmc's note: AFOSI was also very deeply involved in this collection activity.]

NOTE: Aliens have been extremely interested in our nuclear weapons and nuclear research. Many reported military sightings and incidents occur over nuclear weapons bases. The Alien's interest in our nuclear weapons can only be attributed to the future threat of a nuclear war on Earth. The Air Force have initiated measures to insure the security of the nuclear weapons from Alien theft or destruction. MJ12 feels confident the Aliens are on an exploration of our solar system for peaceful purposes. However, we must continue to observe and track the Aliens' movements until it is determined that the Aliens' future plans contain no threat to our national security or the civilization of Earth. 

(TS/ORCON) Most governmental documents pertaining to UFO sightings, incidents and governmental policies, including Project Blue Book, have been released to the public under FOIA or under various other release programs. MJ12 felt the remaining documents and information (not related to Project Aquarius) relating to technological facts regarding Aliens' medical matters, the fact that an Alien was captured alive and survived for three years, can not be released to the public for fear the information would be obtained by SHIS [Editor's note: This may be a reference to hostile foreign intelligence services.] There was other information obtained from EBE that was deemed sensitive and not releasable to the public. Notably, Project Aquarius Volume IX, which pertains to tracing the Aliens' first visitation of Earth back some 5,000 years. EBE reported that 2,000 years ago his ancestors planted a human creature on Earth to assist the inhabitants of Earth in developing a civilization. This information was only vague and the exact identity or background information on this homo-sapien was not obtained. [Sic] Undoubtfully, if this information was released to the public, it would cause a worldwide religious panic. MJ3 [Editor's note: Apparently a reference to a designated member of MJ12.] has developed a plan that will allow release of Project Aquarius, Volumes I thru III. The release program calls for a gradual release of information over a period of time in order to condition the public for future disclosures. Atch 5 of this briefing contains certain guidelines for future public releases.

(TS/ORCON) In the 1976 MJ3 report (Atch 6), it was estimated the Aliens' technology was many thousands of years ahead of United States technology. Our scientists speculate that until our technology develops to a level equal to the Aliens, we cannot understand the large volume of scientific information the United States has already gained from the Aliens. This advancement of United States technology may take many hundreds of years.

SUB PROJECTS UNDER PROJECT AQUARIUS

       1. (TS/ORCON) PROJECT BANDO: (PROWORD: RISK) Originally established in 1949. Its mission was to collect and evaluate medical information from the surviving Alien creature and the recovered Alien bodies. This Project medically examined EBE and provided United States medical researchers with certain answers to the evolution theory. (OPR: CIA) (Terminated in 1974)
       2. (TS/ORCON) PROJECT SIGMA: (PROWORD: MIDNIGHT) Originally established as part of Project Gleem in 1954. Became a separate project in 1976. Its mission was to establish communication with Aliens. This Project met with positive success, when in 1959, the United States established primitive communications with the Aliens. On April 25, 1964, a USAF intelligence officer met two Aliens at a prearranged location in the desert of New Mexico [Editor's note: This apparently refers to the Holloman AFB landing.]

         [Rmc's note: The exact date was April 24th, 1964 at a test site. Holloman was another incident.]

          The contact lasted for approximately three hours. Based on the Alien's language given to us by EBE, the Air Force officer managed to exchange basic information with the two Aliens (Atch 7). This project is continuing at an Air Force base in New Mexico. (OPR: MJ12/NSA).
       3. (TS/ORCON) PROJECT SNOWBIRD: (PROWORD: CETUS) Originally established in 1972. Its mission was to test fly a recovered alien aircraft. This project is continuing in Nevada. (OPR: USAF/NSA/CIA/MJ12)
       4. (TS/ORCON) PROJECT POUNCE: (PROWORD: DIXIE) Originally established in 1968. Its mission was to evaluate all UFO/IAC information pertaining to space technology. PROJECT POUNCE continues. (OPR: NASA/USAF)

PROJECT AQUARIUS

A Top Secret project that was started in 1953 and was set up to accumulate as much data as possible about alien life forms and to distribute the collected information to the relevant projects. Its existence was revealed by WILLIAM MOORE when he released three pages of a "Project Aquarius Executive Briefing Document" to the public. Unfortunately for Moore, this document is now thought to be a fake due to its sloppy presentation (there was a logo on the cover which looked like it had been drawn on with a felt-tip pen) as well as missing background detail. Moore was asked to release more proof that Project Aquarius existed, but he refused, saying that the burden of proof is on those saying that the document is a hoax. 

http://www.yawp.com/3rd-i/rsrc/gloss/p/proj_aqua.html

PROJECT SIGMA

An ongoing 1954 Top Secret project that looked into how to communicate with aliens. That projects existence was revealed in the PROJECT AQUARIUS Briefing Document and is said to have succeeded in 1964 when a USAF intelligence officer met two other aliens at a prearranged location in a desert in New Mexico. However, there is a "Project Sigma" listed in the 1986 Defense Marketing Services Code Name Directory as a "Top Secret Air Force program involving Rockwell International" and has been officially identified as a laser weapons project. 

http://www.yawp.com/3rd-i/rsrc/gloss/p/proj_sigma.html

PROJECT BLUE BOOK

The last publicly acknowledged USAF investigation into UFOs, and something of a controversial one, which started in March 1952. Its aims were to find explanations for UFO sightings, to assess whether they were a threat to national security, and to determine if the UFOs used advanced technology from which the US could learn. Reports were collected, analyzed and filed according to their results. No-one noticed anything was wrong with the project until one of the people on the investigation team sent in his own sighting. It was filed, but when he wanted to refer back to his report, it had disappeared. He then alleged that any reports that were both unexplained and could cause public uproar were siphoned off out of Blue Book to somewhere else higher up in authority, a claim that ufologists now see as fact. Blue Book was wound up in 1969 as a result of the CONDON REPORT and one of its investigators, Dr J. Allen Hynek, went on to form the first scientific based UFO group, the Center for UFO Studies, in 1973. 

http://www.yawp.com/3rd-i/rsrc/gloss/p/proj_blue.html

http://www.bluebookarchive.org/

CONDON REPORT

The result of an investigation into PROJECT BLUE BOOK in 1969 by Dr Edward Condon. He started the investigation saying that all UFOs are "bunk", people who believed in them were "kooks", the authors of UFO books should be "horsewhipped" and that Blue Book was a waste of time. As a consequence, the report concluded that all UFO sightings were explainable and that UFOs didn't pose a defense threat. 

PROJECT GALILEO

An S-4 project dealing with flying recovered discs. 

S-4

There are three S-4s in the Nevada Test Site (home of AREA 51). One is a nuclear reactor, one is an area just south of the Tonopah test range, and one called Papoose Dry Lake Bed, ten miles south of Area 51. It is the latter area that ROBERT LAZAR claims to have worked in. 

LAZAR, ROBERT SCOTT

Robert Lazar is a scientist with two masters degrees, one in physics, the other in electronics. He wrote his thesis on magneto hydrodynamics (MHD). He has worked in Los Alamos as a technician and then as a physicist in the Polarized Proton Section dealing with particle accelerators. In his spare time, he has built a jet powered car _and_ a jet powered motorbike (max. speed 350mph!), as well as a car capable of running off of hydrogen.

In March 1989, Lazar appeared on KLAS-TV in the US claiming to have worked in an above Top Secret installation known as S-4, ten miles south of AREA 51 in the Nevada desert. He was a scientist who was employed between December 1988 and April 1989 to examine a captured flying saucer to try and reverse engineer the saucer's propulsion mechanism. He claims that there were nine different saucers at S-4, although he was only working on one of them. He was told that the crafts used a propulsion system that uses gravity waves, a theory that mainstream science hasn't discovered yet (scientists don't know what gravity actually _is_, there are many theories,but there hasn't been one that is universally accepted yet) and the energy needed is supplied by irradiating Element 115, an element not found on Earth and which cannot be synthesized. A kilogram of the element releases the same amount of energy as 47 10-megaton hydrogen bombs. He says that he had 500 pounds (227.27kg) of the element to work with, but each craft only needed 223 grams of the element. Whilst working on one of the craft, he was allowed to actually go inside the craft and he was also present at a test flight in which the craft underwent a few simple manoeuvres in the air.

When he went public in March 1989, he appeared on US TV in shadow with his voice altered, under the pseudonym "Dennis", an inside joke since his boss at S-4 was called Dennis Mariani, in an attempt to remain anonymous. On 29/3/89 he took three of his friends, one of them John Lear, to the edge of S-4 to observe any UFO test flights through a telescope.They saw (and filmed) a bright light rise in a step manoeuvre, that is, it would hover in the air, briefly disappear and reappear a few feet higher, and then the light went down in the same way. When they went again the following week on 6/4/89, they were caught by a security guard. Their ID details were recorded on a computer in Area 51 and they were ordered to leave the area, despite it being public land. They did leave and the following day, Lazar was ordered to go to Area 51 for a meeting with some security guards and an FBI agent. It was then that he resigned and left.

After he was fired at whilst traveling on an Interstate highway, he decided that he'd better go public on TV under his own name, the theory being that if anyone kills him after going completely public, then that action would prove that he was telling the truth. He went on TV to tell the full story in November 1989 and his story has (to my knowledge) remained consistent since then. 

PROJECT GRUDGE

The successor to PROJECT SIGN which was launched to effectively denounce the UFO problem. Journalists were encouraged to write articles saying that UFOs didn't exist. The final report said that, despite getting 23% more reports than Project Sign did, all sightings could be dismissed on psychological ground and that any further investigation should be downgraded greatly, which it was. Project Grudge was shut down in 1950. 

PROJECT POUNCE

A Top Secret project in 1953 that evaluated all UFOs in order to gain more space technology knowledge. 

PROJECT SIGN

The first official USAF UFO investigation which started in January 1948. Its brief was to determine what UFOs were. It lasted until February 1949, its final report saying that 20% of the cases were unexplainable. 
 

Project Sign group inside the T-2 Conference Room at Wright Patterson AFB in 1948. From left and around the table are: Lt. Col. Malcolm Seashore, chief of Material Command Intelligence Technical Analysis; [unidentifiable person blocked by Seashore]; Lt. Col. J.J. Hausman; Col. Howard McCoy, director of Air Material Command T-2 Intelligence Division; [believed to be] Capt. Robert Sneider, Project officer under McCoy and Clingerman; [believed to be] Col. William Clingerman, executive officer for Material Command Intelligence Analysis (MCIA); and John "Red" Honaker, liaison to the AMC Commander Lt Gen. Nathan Twining, with pipe.

PROJECT SNOWBIRD

An ongoing 1972 Top Secret project that researched, developed and implemented alien spacecraft technology and test flew recovered UFOs. It is possible that the UFO involved in the CASH/LANDRUM CASE was built by the Americans as part of this project, however another"Project Snowbird" has been found described as a "Joint Army/Air Force peacetime military exercise in the sub-arctic region in 1955" in the 1963 Gale Research's Code Names Dictionary. Project Snowbird is another project that was only revealed in the PROJECT AQUARIUS Briefing Document. 

PROJECT TWINKLE

A highly secret study into green fireballs seen in New Mexico. By the time an investigator arrived at a scene where fireballs had been observed, they would have disappeared so they couldn't be investigated properly, and Project Twinkle was shut down. It was thought that since the fireballs moved to another location before investigators came onto the scene, the fireballs were controlled by some intelligence. 

COOPER, MILTON WILLIAM

Known as Bill Cooper, this is one man who the UFO community does not trust anymore. He used to work for the US Air Force and claims to have then moved on into Naval Intelligence. He made his debut on PARANET with a report on a UFO sighting he had whilst on the USS Tiru, a US Naval submarine. That report was accepted in good faith. He then began to send in details about various secret projects that he alleged the US governments were involved in during his time in intelligence. When asked for evidence to back his claims up by UFO researchers, he replied abusively. His reports continued to be sent in and the researchers still questioned him about backup evidence. Eventually he was barred from Paranet. He still wrote the reports and sent them into various bulletin boards anonymously, this time accusing the UFO researchers that questioned his authenticity as people who are working for the government to spread DISINFORMATION to the public. Bill Cooper is now a highly paid lecturer who lectures about his "experiences"and also claims that JFK was assassinated by the driver of the car because he wanted to make details about UFOs public and that we had bases on the Moon and on Mars built in the 1950's. Evidence : none for the bases and a seventh generation copy of the film showing the assassination that is very bad quality. He also claims that the aliens in US TV series "Alien Nation" are real aliens who were employed as part of an indoctrination program so that the public will accept the reality of aliens more easily. Bill Cooper's sources for his hypothesis is a mixture of the claims of PAUL BENNEWITZ, BILL MOORE, JOHN LEAR and BOB LAZAR and added a few unfounded theories he invented himself. When Bob Lazar was on a phone-in in 1989 ("Billy Goodman's Happening", 21/11/89) whilst he was going public, Cooper called in and said that he had talked to Lazar for over a year and that he had checked out his claims and they are all genuine. Then, some months later, Cooper changes his mind and says that Lazar is a fraud and had always known he was a fraud ever since he first went public. This is just one example of the many U-turns and inconsistencies that Cooper has carried out over the years. 

LEAR, JOHN

The estranged son of Bill Lear, inventor of the Lear Jet. John Lear is the only pilot who holds every airman certificate awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration. He has flown over 160 different type of aircraft and had flown many missions for the CIA. He is a friend of PAUL BENNEWITZ who told Lear everything that he had heard from RICHARD DOTY and WILLIAM MOORE and Lear believed most of it. Lear was also a friend of ROBERT LAZAR who told him about the various goings on at AREA 51; Moore showed him the various documents he had been given by Doty, and from those three sources began work on his Lear Hypothesis, also known as the DARK SIDE HYPOTHESIS. He then subscribed to Paranet and found a friend in BILL COOPER. With Cooper's help, he finished his hypothesis and sent it to the Paranet Bulletin Board. He then decided to test the UFO society by faking some government documents about aliens, the Krlll (pronounced "Krill") Files. All of the UFO society (but one) checked out the material included in the files and found large inconsistencies and lies. The one person who didn't was Cooper, who claimed to have seen the documents when he was working for the government. When the files were declared as faked, Lear and Cooper were barred from Paranet and the friendship between them broke down, Cooper accusing Lear of being a government agent. Lear is now lecturing about his Hypothesis. 

PARANET

Paranet is a moderated forum founded by Jim Spieser in 1986 originally dedicated to the paranormal as well as UFOs, although the UFO side grabbed the most attention. Originally distributed as a newsletter via E-mail, it now consists of a set of newsgroups on Usenet. It was the first organization that spread news of the ROBERT LAZAR story around the world and was also the forum in which MILTON WILLIAM COOPER made his debut and his reputation as a person not to be trusted. 

AREA 51

The dry Groom Lake portion of Nellis Air Force Range and Nuclear Test Site in the Nevada desert, about 80 miles NNW of Las Vegas. It is here that the US government is test-flying highly secret BLACK PROJECT aircraft, including UFOs, for a number of years.