Investigating Alleged Human Rights Abuses at a Joint US Government-Extraterrestrial Base at Dulce, New Mexico
An Independent Report by © Dr Michael E. Salla
September 25, 2003
DrSalla@exopolitics.org
www.exopolitics.org
September 25, 2003
DrSalla@exopolitics.org
www.exopolitics.org
Abstract
Dr Paul Bennewitz is an electronics specialist who in the late 1979 began to film, photograph, and electronically intercept what appeared to be extensive UFO/ET activity and communications that he traced to the vicinity of the Archuletta Mesa on Jicarilla Apache Reservation land near the town of Dulce. Based on the collected evidence Bennewitz concluded that an underground extraterrestrial (ET) base existed near Dulce that played a role in both cattle mutilations and abduction of civilians. In 1980, the Air Force Office of Special Intelligence (AFOSI) began investigating Bennewitz’s evidence, and this eventually led to its disinformation campaign to discredit Bennewitz. Bennewitz’s subsequent electronic evidence and field research alleging extensive human rights abuses were occurring at the Dulce underground base became associated with the AFOSI disinformation campaign. Most UFO researchers concluded that Bennewitz had been too influenced by disinformation to be taken seriously
In this report, I investigate Bennewitz’s claims regarding massive human rights abuses by ETs at an underground base at Dulce, and his belief that this was a joint US government/ET base that was the site of a significant violent confrontation between military forces and resident ETs in 1979. I begin my analysis of whistleblower testimonies by reviewing whistleblower protection laws, and how National Security statutes eliminate this protection for whistleblowers that disclose classified information such as secret underground military installations. I then review various whistleblower testimonies that involved the disclosure of information about the existence of an underground base at Dulce used by ETs. I subsequently explore whether the evidence for the alleged human rights abuses and a military conflict having occurred at Dulce are persuasive. I then examine criticisms raised against the Dulce underground base hypothesis. Using further whistleblower testimony, I further examine how a secret base at Dulce and other government facilities are funded without US Congressional and Executive Office oversight. Finally, I make recommendations on how to address the alleged human rights abuses identified in this report, and the political implications of the purported joint government-ET underground base at Dulce.
About the Author
Dr. Michael E. Salla has held academic appointments in the School of International Service, American University, Washington DC (1996-2001), and the Department of Political Science, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (1994-96). He taught as an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University, Washington DC., in 2002. He is currently researching methods of Transformational Peace as a ‘Researcher in Residence’ at the Center for Global Peace (2001-2003) and directing the Center’s Peace Ambassador Program. He has a PhD in Government from the University of Queensland, Australia, and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of The Hero’s Journey Toward a Second American Century (Greenwood Press, 2002); co-editor of Why the Cold War Ended (Greenwood Press, 1995) and Essays on Peace(Central Queensland University Press, 1995); and authored more than seventy articles, chapters, and book reviews on peace, ethnic conflict and conflict resolution. He has conducted research and fieldwork in the ethnic conflicts in East Timor, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Sri Lanka. He has organized a number of international workshops involving mid to high level participants from these conflicts. He has a website at www.american.edu/salla/. In January 2003, he began publishing a series of scholarly papers dealing with the political implications of a possible extraterrestrial presence on the planet (website URL: www.exopolitics.org). These papers are being published as Exopolitics: Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence (forthcoming Dandelion Books, 2004).
The Dulce Report: Investigating Alleged Human Rights Abuses at a Joint US Government-Extraterrestrial Base at Dulce, New Mexico
Introduction [1]
Dr Paul Bennewitz is an electronics specialist who in the late 1979 began to film, photograph, and electronically intercept what appeared to be extensive UFO/ET activity and communications over the Manzano mountain range near Albuquerque, New Mexico. He traced this UFO/ET activity to the vicinity of the Archuletta Mesa on Jicarilla Apache Reservation land near the town of Dulce. Bennewitz had earlier researched cattle mutilations in the region and civilians who claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrials. Based on his film, photographic and electronic evidence, and his field research Bennewitz concluded that an underground extraterrestrial (ET) base existed near Dulce that played a role in both cattle mutilations and abduction of civilians. In 1980, Bennewitz submitted his evidence to the nearby Kirtland Air Force base to alert officials to the possibility that ET races were a threat to the nearby Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Area. The Air Force Office of Special Intelligence (AFOSI) quickly became involved in investigating Bennewitz’s evidence, and this eventually led to what credible sources conclude was a disinformation campaign to discredit Bennewitz. Bennewitz’s subsequent electronic evidence and field research alleging extensive human rights abuses were occurring at the Dulce underground base became associated with the AFOSI disinformation campaign. Most UFO researchers concluded, after Bennewitz had suffered a nervous breakdown in 1987 and the AFOSI disinformation campaign became public knowledge, that Bennewitz had been too influenced by disinformation to be taken seriously.
The strongest support for Bennewitz’s claims are a number of individuals claiming to be ‘whistleblowers’ who in their capacity as former employees of corporations performing a variety military contracts worked at or learned of the Dulce base, and subsequently revealed aspects of what had occurred there. A recurring feature of these whistleblower statements is testimony of a violent conflict in 1979 between US military personnel and ETs at the base that led to a significant number of military fatalities. This seemed to confirm Bennewitz’s claim of such a military conflict, and raises the possibility that the conflict’s cause was related to his allegations of human rights abuses. Furthermore, Bennewitz’s evidence provided an example of how money illegally siphoned from the US economy into ‘black budget’ programs related to an ET presence, estimated to be as high as 1.1 trillion dollars annually, was being used. [2]
Was Bennewitz just an overzealous UFO researcher that accidentally tapped into highly classified Air Force research and development projects, or was he an electronics genius who single handedly uncovered the existence of a joint US government-ET underground base where ET’s conducted gross human rights violations on abducted civilians? Seeking clear answers to these questions have spurred a number of books, articles, and internet websites. [3] The quality of answers has varied greatly since all who have written on Dulce have mixed primary source materials with secondary sources that cross-reference one another without confirming the validity and origins of sources. This has led to much confusion and uncertainty for those seeking clear answers to what was occurring under the ground at Dulce since most of the available Dulce material takes the form of hearsay and speculation. A more scholarly effort of analyzing the primary source material available on Dulce is needed to help answer key questions about the alleged base at Dulce, and the human rights violations that were reported to be occurring there by ETs with US government complicity. This report is an effort to fulfill the need for a scholarly analysis of the primary source material on what has occurred, and may be still occurring, at Dulce and elsewhere in the US and around the planet.
In this report, I begin by investigating Bennewitz’s claims regarding massive human rights abuses by ETs at an underground base at Dulce, and his belief that this was a joint US government/ET base that was the site of a significant violent confrontation between military forces and resident ETs in 1979. I begin my analysis of whistleblower testimonies that support Bennewitz’s claims by reviewing federal and state whistleblower protection laws, and how National Security statutes eliminate this protection for whistleblowers that disclose classified information such as secret underground military installations. I then review various whistleblower testimonies that involved the disclosure of information about the existence of an underground base at Dulce used by ETs. I subsequently explore whether the evidence for the alleged human rights abuses and a military conflict having occurred at Dulce are persuasive. I then examine criticisms raised against the Dulce underground base hypothesis. Using further whistleblower testimony, I further examine how a secret base at Dulce and other government facilities are funded without US Congressional and Executive Office oversight. Finally, I make recommendations on how to address the alleged human rights abuses identified in this report, and the political implications of the purported joint government-ET underground base at Dulce.
Paul Bennewitz and Evidence of a Joint Government-Extraterrestrial Base at Dulce
In the mid 1970’s, a wave of cattle mutilations began occurring in New Mexico and Dr Paul Bennewitz, a local Albuquerque businessman and electronics specialist, became keenly interested in the phenomenon. [4] In 1979, he did some field trips with Gabe Valdez, a well known New Mexico State Trooper to investigate some of these mutilations, and they concluded that the mutilations were not caused by anything ‘natural’. Bennewitz soon began noticing an unusual amount of UFO activity in the Northern New Mexico area. Using his film and photographic equipment, he began accumulating evidence of what appeared to be UFO’s. [5] He then began intercepting radio and video transmissions that he believed were used by the UFOs and involved different ET races. He traced these transmissions to a base located under the Archuletta Mesa, near Dulce. Bennewitz believed he had identified the radio and video frequencies used for communications between the ET piloted ships and ground controllers at the underground Dulce base. Bennewitz then created a communication system that he believed enabled him to electronically communicate with what he now was convinced were ET piloted ships flying to and from the base. Furthermore, Bennewitz began to track the electronic frequencies ETs used to control individuals who had been abducted and implanted with miniature electronic devices. Bennewitz tracked down some of these individuals and conducted interviews on what they could remember of their ET encounters. Bennewitz eventually issued a report, Project Beta, in which he summarized the evidence of his filming, photographing, electronic interception, communications and fieldwork:
1. Two years continuous recorded electronic surveillance and tracking with d.F. 24 hr/day data of alien ships plus 6,000 feet motion picture of same.
2. Detection and disassembly of alien communication and video channels – both.
3. Constant reception of video from alien ship and underground base view-screen; typical alien, humanoid and at times apparent homo sapien.
4. A case history of an encounter victim in New Mexico which lead to the communications link and discovery that apparently all encounter victims have deliberate alien implants along with obvious accompanying scars. The victims cat scan. Five other cases were verified.
5. Established constant direct communication with the alien using a computer and a form of hex decimal code communication was instigated apparently.
6. Through the alien communication loop, the true underground base location. [6]
2. Detection and disassembly of alien communication and video channels – both.
3. Constant reception of video from alien ship and underground base view-screen; typical alien, humanoid and at times apparent homo sapien.
4. A case history of an encounter victim in New Mexico which lead to the communications link and discovery that apparently all encounter victims have deliberate alien implants along with obvious accompanying scars. The victims cat scan. Five other cases were verified.
5. Established constant direct communication with the alien using a computer and a form of hex decimal code communication was instigated apparently.
6. Through the alien communication loop, the true underground base location. [6]
All of the evidence he gathered pointed to the existence of an underground base at Dulce used by different ET races. The communications, video images, and the abductee testimonies he found, provided further information that Bennewitz used in understanding what was occurring at the base and its national security implications.
One of the abductees Bennewitz found was Myrna Hansen whom he had arranged to be placed under hypnotic regression by Dr Leo Sprinkle from the University of Wyoming. [7] Under hypnosis she claimed to have been abducted in 1980 along with her son and taken inside the Dulce base. She proceeded to describe humans placed in cold storage, and large vats filled with the remains of cattle and human body parts. [8] These were the most controversial aspects of Bennewitz’s activities but combined with his electronic interceptions, video recordings and communications he became convinced that they fit an overall pattern of ET deception, responsibility for cattle mutilations and massive human rights violations of abducted civilians. [9]
Bennewitz’s electronic interceptions and interviews led to him quickly learning much about the activities at the Dulce underground base, the extensive ET presence there and the sizable number of civilians abducted and forcibly taken to the base. His electronic intercepts and communications provided him some basic information that a military conflict had occurred at the Dulce base between ET races and US military personnel. [10] Bennewitz subsequently reported his findings to the Air Force Office of Special Intelligence (AFOSI) at the nearby Kirtland Air force in October 1980 believing the ETs presented a threat to the nearby Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Area. In an official report signed by Major Thomas Cseh on October 28, 1980 and later released under the Freedom of Information Act, Major Cseh wrote:
On 26 Oct 80, SA [Special Agent] Doty, with the assistance of JERRY MILLER, GS-15, Chief, Scientific Advisor for Air Force Test and Evaluation Center, KAFB, interviewed Dr. Bennewitz at his home in the Four Hills section of Albuquerque, which is adjacent to the northern boundary of Manzano Base.… Dr. Bennewitz has been conducting independent research into Aerial Phenomena for the last 15 months. Dr. Bennewitz also produced several electronic recording tapes, allegedly showing high periods of electrical magnetism being emitted from Manzano/Coyote Canyon area. Dr. Bennewitz also produced several photographs of flying objects taken over the general Albuquerque area. He has several pieces of electronic surveillance equipment pointed at Manzano and is attempting to record high frequency electrical beam pulses. Dr. Bennewitz claims these Aerial Objects produce these pulses. …After analyzing the data collected by Dr. Bennewitz, Mr MILLER related the evidence clearly shows that some type of unidentified aerial objects were caught on film; however, no conclusions could be made whether these objects pose a threat to Manzano/Coyote Canyon areas. [11]
When AFOSI took no action, Bennewitz approached the then New Mexico Senator, Harrison Schmitt, who demanded to know why Bennewitz’s claims were not being investigated. Frustrated by the lack of official support for his discoveries, Bennewitz issued a detailed report titled Project Beta and continued to accumulate data on ET operations in the area. [12]
Based on his intercepted electronic communications, Bennewitz revealed in his Project Beta report the following about the size of the base and the ET population:
The total alien basing area apparently contains several cultures, (all under the designation ‘unity’) and is approx 3km wide by 8km long and is located in the middle of nowhere on the Jicarilla Indian Reservation west of Dulce, NM. Based on the number of ships presently in this area, the total alien population is estimated to be at least 2,000 and most likely more. [13]
Bennewitz’s work had attracted much attention and soon led to a covert effort by AFOSI to discredit him. In a 1989 Mutual UFO Network conference, a prominent UFO specialist, William Moore, caused an uproar when he openly declared that in 1982 he had been co-opted into this effort, and began passing on information about Bennewitz’s activities to AFOSI and played a role in feeding disinformation to Bennewitz. Moore described the events as follows:
… when I first ran into the disinformation operation… being run on Bennewitz… it seemed to me… I was in a rather unique position. There I was with my foot… in the door of a secret counterintelligence game that gave every appearance of being somehow directly connected to a high-level government UFO project, and, judging by the positions of the people I knew to be directly involved with it, definitely had something to do with national security! There was no way I was going to allow the opportunity to pass me by without learning at least something about what was going on. I would play the disinformation game, get my hands dirty just often enough to lead those directing the process into believing that I was doing exactly what they wanted me to do, and all the while continue to burrow my way into the matrix so as to learn as much as possible about who was directing it and why. [14]
The public declaration by Moore confirmed that Bennewitz had, at least partially, succeeded in electronic monitoring of ET craft in the area, communicating with ETs at the Dulce base, and monitoring ET control of abductees in the area. This might help explain why AFOSI began what emerged as an intense covert effort to discredit Bennewitz. The basic strategy in the campaign by AFOSI was to suggest that the most egregious aspects of Bennewitz’s claims – the Dulce base as a site where humans were abducted for genetic experiments, placed in cold storage and even used as a food source for ETs – was disinformation rather than accurate reports of the nature of the ET presence in the Northern New Mexico area. Indeed Moore argued that by the time he met him in 1982, the bulk of Bennewitz’s information was already disinformation fed by AFOSI. [15]
Many UFO researchers despaired of finding the truth of what was happening at Dulce due to the fog of disinformation rumored to be circulating around Bennewitz, and the various activities orchestrated by AFOSI and/or other intelligence services that targeted Bennewitz and his supporters. [16] The dominant view was that Bennewitz was definitely on to something but had succumbed to beliefs that discredited his early and most persuasive work. One UFO researcher claimed that the disinformation was passed on through the intercepted communications: “Where the truth began and ended in the information collected by Bennewitz is debatable but one thing is without doubt true – the content of the intercepted messages certainly caused Bennewitz to become a paranoid and deluded man who eventually suffered a colossal nervous breakdown in 1985.” [17] The intensity of his investigations and the official response had a heavy personal toll on Bennewitz caused his nervous breakdown. He later withdrew entirely from any public discussion of the Dulce base and ended his involvement with UFO issues.
Despite his controversial withdrawal from the UFO scene, Bennewitz’s credibility as an undisputed electronics genius was not at question, and the extensive database of films, photos and raw electronic communications data of UFO/ET phenomenon, was powerful evidence that something was occurring around the Archuletta Mesa. Aside from the raw physical evidence accumulated by Bennewitz, a number of whistleblowers have come forward to give further testimony and even physical evidence of an underground base at Dulce, and of ETs committing human rights violations on abducted civilians. Before analyzing whistleblower testimony concerning the Dulce underground base, I will point out the legal position of whistleblowers when disclosing classified information since this would help explain why comparatively few individuals have stepped forward to confirm the allegations of massive human rights abuses at Dulce and other joint government-ET underground bases.
Whistleblowers and National Security
‘Whistleblowers’ have been described as courageous employees who often with the zeal of a martyr disclose unethical or criminal government/corporate practices that involve great damage to the public interest. [18] Often the short-term result for whistleblowers is the loss of jobs, reputation, economic security, and even life. A whistleblower can be defined as any employee of any branch of government or corporation that publicly discloses unethical or corrupt practices by a government agency/corporation that violate the law and/or damage the public interest. There are an extensive series of state and federal whistleblower laws for those who come forward to disclose such practices and risk their own careers, reputations and physical safety. [19] When it comes to employment in government agencies/corporations that involve working in projects with national security implications, whistleblower protection laws have some important qualifications as evidenced by the Basic Federal Whistleblower Statute concerning National Security Whistleblowers (5 USC 2302). [20] The relevant section of this Statute [5 USC Sec. 2302. (8) (A)] concerns the prohibition of action taken against an employee (whistleblower) because of any disclosure of information that the employee believes is evidence of “a violation of any law, rule or regulation,” or “an abuse of authority, or “substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.” The relevant section then states the critical qualifying condition: “if such disclosure is not specifically prohibited by law and if such information is not specifically required by Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or the conduct of foreign affairs.”
As evident in the qualifying statement, whistleblowers are not permitted to disclose information if such disclosure compromises national security. This means that if one is employed in a government agency and/or corporation working on a classified project with national security implications, such individuals do not receive protection under Federal Whistleblower Statutes for publicly disclosing classified information. Furthermore, if government/corporate employees sign contracts that permit severe penalties for disclosing classified information, such individuals essentially sign away their constitutional rights since they have no legal recourse to prevent the imposition of even the most draconian penalties. Consequently, if employees witness, for instance, egregious human rights abuses committed in the operation of classified projects, they have no legal protection if they choose to disclose this to the general public. One individual who apparently risked disclosing egregious human rights violations while working on a highly classified project is Thomas Castello.
Thomas Castello & the Dulce Papers
In 1987 an apparent whistleblower organized the release of 30 photos, video and a set of papers to UFO researchers that were apparently physical evidence of a joint US government/extraterrestrial base two miles beneath the Archuletta Mesa, near the town of Dulce, New Mexico. The collection came to be called the ‘Dulce Papers’ and provided graphic evidence of the operations of this secret underground facility and appeared to provide powerful support to Bennewitz’s conclusions regarding activities at the underground base. [21] The Dulce Papers described genetic experimentation, development of human-extraterrestrial hybrids, use of mind control through advanced computers, cold storage of humans in liquid filled vats, and even the use of human body parts as a nutritional source for extraterrestrial (ET) races. The papers provided possible evidence that humans were used as little more than laboratory animals by ET races working directly with different US government agencies and US corporations fulfilling ‘black budget’ military contracts in a joint base. If the papers were genuine, experiments and projects were being conducted that involved human rights violations on a scale that exceeded even the darkest chapters of recent human history.
The individual responsible for assembling and releasing the Dulce Papers, Thomas Castello, claimed to have worked as a senior security officer at the base before ‘quitting’ the Dulce facility after a military confrontation that occurred in 1979 between elite US military personnel, base security guards, and resident extraterrestrials. The military confrontation he described has been dubbed the ‘Dulce Wars’ and a number of other ‘whistleblowers’ and UFO researchers have subsequently described similar incidents at Dulce or nearby that substantiate many of Castello’s claims. [22] In the time since he claims he left his Dulce employers in 1979, and subsequent release of the Dulce Papers in 1986, Castello gave a number of interviews and corresponded with UFO researchers before eventually vanishing from the scene. The transcripts of these interviews and correspondence provide further ‘whistleblower’ testimony of events at the purported Dulce facility, and the secret ‘war’ that occurred there.
Thomas Castello claims to have served in the US Air force and specialized in military photography and video monitoring. He further claims to have served on a highly classified underground base near the Northern New Mexico town of Dulce. His background has been summarized as follows:
In 1961, Castello was a young sergeant stationed at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada. His job was as a military photographer with a top secret clearance. He later transferred to West Virginia where he trained in advanced intelligence photography. He worked inside an undisclosed underground installation, and due to the nature of his new assignment his clearance was upgraded to TS-IV. He remained with the Air Force as a photographer until 1971 at which time he was offered a job with RAND corporation as a Security Technician, and so he moved to California where RAND had a major facility and his security clearance was upgraded to ULTRA-3. … In 1977 Thomas was transferred to Santa Fe, New Mexico where his pay was raised significantly and his security clearance was again upgraded… this time to ULTRA-7. His new job was as a photo security specialist in the Dulce installation, where his job specification was to maintain, align and calibrate video monitoring cameras throughout the underground complex and to escort visitors to their destinations. [23]
It is the extensive video monitoring that occurred at Dulce that apparently provided Castello the bird’s eye information he needed to learn what was occurring at the base, and the human rights abuses that eventually led to his departure from the base and distribution of classified material. Castello’s claims are outlined in two sources, first are the Dulce papers themselves that presumably involved classified material taken from the base; and second, the interviews/correspondence Castello had with a number of UFO researchers. Much of Castello’s material has since been circulated on the Internet and has been incorporated in a book titled The Dulce Wars that was authored by a UFO researcher who uses the name ‘Branton’. [24]
Officially confirming Castello’s employment, military and educational background and therefore his status as a whistleblower has not been possible. This is possibly due to a practice that has been claimed to be standard for civilians who work under contract to corporations and/or military/intelligence agencies on classified projects involving ETs: the official removal of all public records of contracted employees as a security precaution in the event they intentionally or unintentionally publicly disclose what is occurring in such projects. For example, Dr Michael Wolf claims to have been a former scientist and policy maker on ET affairs that began to serve from 1979 on the coordinating policy group for ET affairs, the Special Studies Group (PI-40) in the National Security Council. [25] In a series of interviews with the prominent UFO researcher, Dr Richard Boylan, Wolf claimed that he was being directed by his superiors to participate in a controlled leak of information to the UFO community while providing a fall back of ‘plausible deniability’ for the government. [26] All public records of Wolf’s advanced university degrees and contractual services to different military/intelligence/national security branches of government were eliminated making it very difficult if not impossible to confirm his background and substantiate the startling information he was releasing. He claimed that this removal of public records was ‘standard practice’ for all civilians employed by either corporations and/or the US military in clandestine projects involving ETs. [27] A further source confirming Wolf’s description of the existence of such a ‘standard practice’ was Bob Lazar, a physicist who found that after leaving in 1988 the secret S-4 facility (Dreamland) in Nevada where his job was to reverse engineer the propulsion and power system of recovered ET craft, his birth certificate was no longer available at the hospital he was born at, along with the disappearance of his school, college and all employment records – he simply ceased to officially exist! [28]
It can now be suggested that a standard practice exists for civilians contracted to corporations and/or military/intelligence agencies whereby their employment and public records are removed as a security precaution against either public disclosure of ET related information as in the case of Bob Lazar, or to maintain a highly controlled leak of information as in the case of Dr Wolf. This means that confirming Castello’s employment background and therefore his cred
Related articles
