New "secret" Nevada UAV test site, near Area 51

from Norio Hayakawa at Civilian Intelligence Central

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com


December 6, 2011:

Here is a fairly recent item that came to our attention relevant to some of the new developments taking place at the former Nevada Test Site, now known as the Nevada National Security Site (N2S2):

New "secret" Nevada UAV test site, near Area 51:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/satellite-images-reveal-secret-nevada-uav-site-365721/

(there was a previous report, however, that Northrop Grumman may have been involved in this area for some time)

Here is a comment from Peter Merlin:

We know that the P-175 Polecat was tested at Area 6 (Yucca Lake) because there are images and video of the airplane using the lakebed airstrip. This took place before the new airfield was constructed.

The P-170/RQ-170 Sentinel has been associated with the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at Area 52 (Tonopah Test Range) in official statements. It may have been initially flown from the Yucca strip.

There is circumstantial evidence connecting the Desert Prowler UAV to Area 51, and possibly even to the Red Hats squadron though this seems counterintuitive.

All three are products of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.




Here is a recent, relevant article concerning this facility:

Southwest of Area 51:

Are these satellite images exposing America's secrets?

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/10/could-google-reveal-secret-spy-drone-lost-in-iran/?test=latestnews




NEWS UPDATE CONCERNING AREA 51:

December 10, 2011
Heretofore unpublished photos and information:

The challenge of transporting the A-12's to Area 51

http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-12.html




http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

Aliens, Conspiracies and Anthony Sanchez's intriguing book "UFO HIGHWAY"

from Norio Hayakawa at Civilian Intelligence Central

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com



by Norio Hayakawa
November 11, 2011:

Where I stand on UFOs, Aliens and Conspiracies and my take on Anthony Sanchez's intriguing and highly controversial book, UFO HIGHWAY, http://www.ufohighway.com

I hereby reiterate my stance on this matter:
As far as I am concerned, there has never been any single, solid, physical, tangible, irrefutable (publicly acknowledged) evidence whatsoever that we have ever been (or are being) visited by physical extraterrestrial entities in physical extraterrestrial spacecraft. ("physical", based on our concept and understanding of the terminology)

This has been my bottom line for many, many years and I will continue to take this stand until the day such evidence is manifested beyond question.

However, this does not mean that the so-called UFO phenomenon does not exist.
In fact, it is my belief that this phenomenon has existed from time immemorial.
Unfortunately, I have seen no solid evidence that this phenomenon has anything to do with physical extraterrestrial visitations.
Despite having been involved in the so-called "UFO research" for 50 years or so (I began my involvement with this field since around 1961), I am the first to admit that I have found no answers when it comes to this puzzling phenomenon.

I am bascially in agreement with the statement recently issued by the WHITE HOUSE (on November 7, 2011), i.e., that the "U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engage any member of the human race...in addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye".

I am also in agreement with the following statements issued by the WHITE HOUSE:

"Many scientists and mathematicians have looked with a statistical mindset at the question of whether life exists beyond Earth and have come to the conclusion that the odds are pretty high that somewhere among the trillions and trillions of stars in the universe thee is a planet other than ours that is home to life.

Many have also noted, however, that the odds of us making contact with any of them - especially any intelligent ones - are extremely small, given the distances involved.

But that's all statistics and speculation.

The fact is we have no credible evidence of extraterrestrial presence here on Earth".


Having said all this and having my position clarified, I am still intrigued by the "beliefs" of a segment of the population when it comes to UFOs, Aliens and Conspiracies, i.e., that we have been (or are being) visited by physical extraterrestrial entities in physical extraterrestrial spacecraft and this is all covered up by the government.

This is the reason why, despite my skeptical stance, I try to be open-minded enough to welcome anyone to write a book on UFOs, Aliens and Conspiracies.

As I mentioned in the beginning, one such book that I am quite fascinated with is Anthony Sanchez's controversial, book UFO HIGHWAY, http://www.ufohighway.com

So much so that I offered to write a short FOREWORD to it, regardless of whether his "findings" and his alleged "source" are credible or not, or even whether they were all intentionally "concocted" by him as part of a hidden agenda.
Whatever the case may be, if there ever were such a thing as an "ultimate UFO book", this would be it.

As I stated clearly in the FOREWORD, there is not a single, solid, physical, tangible, irrefutable documentary evidence whatsoever that there is a physical U.S. operated underground base (much less a joint U.S./alien one at that) in Dulce, New Mexico.

However, there seem to be (at least to me) plenty of circumstantial evidences (including many reports and testimonies from many individuals in the local Jicarilla Apache community of Dulce, an area filled with deep-rooted cultural and spiritual beliefs) that "something" is there in Dulce. What that "something" is, I do not know and I do not claim to know.

Ultimately, at least to me, Anthony Sanchez's intriguing book is not about UFOs, nor about aliens nor about an alien base. It is about the role of "belief".
Could collective "beliefs" ever create another level of "reality" somewhere in time and space?

As I insinuated in the FOREWORD, could it be that there is a "highway" through which other "realities" could be interacting with the human psyche in certain locations?
Is there an alternate "reality" lurking and interacting with the human psyche behind the physical facade of Dulce and its surroundings and, by further extension, the entire region east of the Four Corners area of New Mexico?
Yes, this is all nothing but speculation.

We may never know.

I highly recommend UFO HIGHWAY because it is not only a great read but it is a psychological eyeopener and makes us want to ask questions, questions that could very well affect our understanding of what reality ultimately is.

P.S.

Anthony Sanchez, by the way, made his first appearance on Coast To Coast talk radio program which was aired on November 15, 2011:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luoB-xpLLxc&feature=player_embedded

On November 16, the day after his appearance on Coast to Coast, PROJECT CAMELOT had an intriguing, in-depth interview with Anthony Sanchez:

http://www.americanfreedomradio.com/archive/Project-Camelot-32k-111611.mp3



http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

Interesting report from Dulce, New Mexico

from Norio Hayakawa at Civilian Intelligence Central

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com

BREAKING NEWS

November 6, 2011:

INTERESTING REPORT FROM DULCE, NEW MEXICO:

November 3, 2011

DULCE, NEW MEXICO -- An interesting report was given to me by Anthony F. Sanchez, author of the controversial book UFO HIGHWAY, http://www.ufohighway.com:

(QUOTE):

10/21: Former Governor Jesse Ventura was denied access to the Jicarilla Reservation. He was given a token Bigfoot expert of the area and was told to shoot off the reservation.....I am not sure why the Governor was denied access to film there.

10/24 @ 2:30 A.M......I arrive to Dulce with my cameraman.

@8:00 A.M....I am in a sit down meeting with the Tribal Council President and Public Relations Officer....they get my printed book, said they each read the PDF already and then they drop a bombshell on me....they give me unprecedented access to the reservation, specifically the Archuleta Mesa.

@10:00 A.M.....I begin my investigation. A seven year veteran Jicarilla police officer, and now a professional hunting guide, is escorting me in a 4 X 4 up to the top of the mesa, using a road known only to a few people on the reservation...No one uses it....He takes me to the top of the Mesa up onto the pleateau.

SIDE NOTE: He tells me about a recent encounter with two Phoenix Suns basketball players and himself who were accosted by three military personnel...they were told that they were violating a RESTRICTED AREA and needed to vacate the area immediately....when he protested, stating that this was sovereign Jicarilla land, they responded, "Today this is a RESTRICTED AREA, leave now".....they then point AR-15 rifles at all three of them...this happened in June of this year, 2011....my guide says he had similar reports from all over the reservation that same week.


...So, as he tells us that story, and as we are driving up already at the top just a short distance from the radio towers, I spot two strange objects painted military GREEN, and I can see they are plated with serial information....we take out our cameras and photo and video them....I noticed that it was U.S. Government Property (it literally said that) on the Mesa.....we are just 1600 feet away from the radio towers (I have film)....Do you realize what this means?...IT IS PROOF THEY ARE THERE.

My guide assured me that no one else has EVER found MILITARY GRADE materials up on the mesa....not a Jicarilla, not anyone.

We also surveyed the 1996 UFO CRASH SITE.....we photographed that too.....I HAVE A NEW DATA FOR YOU: Residents said that in 1996 a COPPER DISC was seen crashing into the Mesa....it was 150 ft. wide in circumference.....cameras were taken from them by military and tribabl police, under order from the military...they said that the night it happened, the mesa area was cordoned off as a perimeter was set up....they also said that the military came to remove the crash evidence....for weeks after they said Black SUVs were seen in the area.

The source for this info was THREE Jicarilla families who I interviewed, and a current Chief of Police (I am not allowed to say from where) but who was a Jicarilla Police officer at the time...(this man told me of a FACILITY ENTRANCE on the southwest of the Mesa with HOLOGRAPHIC ENTRANCE POINTS, that they have video of Grey Craft (not military) and much more....This man is the REAL DEAL...he and I had DINNER with (name withheld) in Taos at the ASPE Event.....she is my proof...

His two sons were in attendance at the meeting, also sharing personal stories with me and my cameraman, Ric Prestel (Sacramento MUFON)....I have 19 drawings/sketches from this man....my God, one of the CRAFT he describes matches exactly to a PAUL BENNEWITZ sketch...and it matches the COLONEL's descriptions of purplish/lavender lighting...and GREYS.

I learned from this man who the TWO PEOPLE WERE who were at the Dulce Facility in 1979...he says he SWEARS tha these two men admitted to him that they were helicoptered to a secret facility on the southwest area of the MESA....then they said to him that they were passed through a massive holographic entrance (that it had actual doors, but that when opened it projected a FAKE columnar basalt wall...holographic!)......one was NM State Police Officer and the other one was Jicarilla Apache Police Officer (names withheld).

He said that there is another entrance just below the RADIO TOWERS too.

I HAVE A CRAZY STORY FROM HIM TO SHARE ABOUT A CRAFT THAT WAS REPORTED TO THE JICARILLA POLICE DEPT. AND KIRTLAND AFB on the SAME NIGHT.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS STRANGE....

Two days after investigating the Mesa, my face became paralyzed on the left side.

But it gets even stranger...doctors are assuring me that I did not have a stroke causing the Facial Paralysis (that is the good news)...but they are saying that the findings from their blood tests are showing that I was exposed to some unknown neurological bio-agent....they told me today (in California) that whatever it is that is afflicting me, is beyond anything they have ever seen.

Care to guess who did this to me? Strange but it was just two days after I discovered the U.S. Government property atop the Archuleta Mesa that this shit happened to me...I hope I recover...

I am in a lot of pain right now....I wish I could tell more, but I have to sleep....

Anthony Sanchez

(UNQUOTE)


All I did here was to QUOTE from Anthony Sanchez who sent the above report to me.

P.S.:

Sanchez now says that these are Military-Grade Steel Shipping Containers used for F-5 Jet Engines. They are marked with U.S. Government Property serial plates and contain a wealth of data which he is still researching.

-from Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

New "weather tower" constructed atop Tikaboo Peak to monitor Area 51 watchers?

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com


BREAKING NEWS: (please share)

November 3, 2011

AREA 51 "VIEWERS" ATOP TIKABOO PEAK, NEVADA, ARE NOW BEING MONITORED BY REMOTELY-OPERATED MONITORING CAMERAS ATTACHED TO A NEW "WEATHER TOWER", JUST RECENTLY CONSTRUCTED AT THE SITE:

A "weather tower" (with movable monitoring cameras attached) was just constructed atop Tikabaoo Peak, Nevada, which is Public Land and which happens to be the ONLY SPOT now from where the public can view Groom Lake/Area 51 in the distance.

This "weather tower" is being managed by the Desert Research Institute, with a special funding by the DOD.

Is something going on at Area 51?
New, sensitive projects?

See the photos (thanks to Gary Sellani) at:

CIVILIAN INTELLIGENCE CENTRAL:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Civilian-Intelligence-Central/104761666262262?sk=wall


-from Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

One plausible explanation for the 1947 Roswell incident...Operation Paperclip

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com


October 29, 2011:

The Roswell crash was NOT the result of an alien spacecraft crashing in the desert.....the most challenging, alternative view yet proposed for the July 1947 incident:

http://www.roswellufocrash.com

In July of 2010 I was privileged to hear this great presentation given by Guy Malone in Roswell for the 2010 Roswell Festival.

I am sure that this was not the type of presentation that the UFO Museum in Roswell would have appreciated.
And so, this presentation was not held at the Museum but at the Convention Center.

(In the past, the UFO Museum in Roswell has controlled and dominated the Roswell Festival.)

However, the 2010 Roswell Festival was not handled by the Museum.
It was the City of Roswell that took over the 2010 Festival.....and therefore speakers who presented alternative interpretations of the Roswell incident were given free rein to speak at the Festival.

The Roswell UFO Museum has never invited any speaker that deviated from the "alien" interpretation of the Roswell incident. ("aliens" draw people and "money" to the museum and, consequently, to the city, a dilemma for the city in many ways...economically and especially politically).

So, I feel that this was a victory for Guy Malone.
And I tend to concur with Guy Malone in this alternative explanation to the Roswell incident.

http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

The UFO phenomenon -- the bottom line - - -an excellent comment by Tomas Scolarici

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com




by Tomas Scolarici
(quoted on October 11, 2011)

(QUOTE):

The assumption of the extraterrestrial origin of the UFO phenomenon presents certain insoluble contradictions.

There have been sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects since the beginnings of history. There are enough graphic and narrative accounts to show that UFOs are not just a contemporary phenomenon. If we accept the common belief that UFOs are and have been extraterrestrial artifacts, we cannot help but wonder why there has never been open and verifiable contact with human civilization.

Visitors, at least friendly ones, knock on the door and introduce themselves; UFOs do not.
Nothing ever seems to come from these presumed “space visitors”. No contact, no help, no identity. Consequently, I would have to classify them as clandestine, unauthorized voyeurs, rather than friendly cosmic brothers.

The whole theory of alien civilizations watching over us seems rather implausible. We have to suppose that they must have some purpose for being here, but what is it? There doesn’t appear to be any real evidence of any particular activity. Nothing indicates that the "messages" of the alleged contactees come from advanced extraterrestrials.

These messages sound like a blend of New Age rhetoric, pseudo-science and preposterous theosophy, and the Exo-fantasists give us more of the same.

The prophets of the UFO=ET subculture allude to their anonymous and/or dubious "sources" and chastise anyone who dares to question them. For the "alienologists", the whole scientific and political establishment conspires to conceal the extraterrestrial presence in our world. If we stop to think about what such a conspiracy would require, we quickly realize the ridiculous and irrational nature of this idea. A secret of such magnitude could not remain secret very long. Not in the era of Wikileaks.

The rhetoric of nonsense, improvisation and fantasies is usually proposed instead of reliable evidences.
The believers, as do church goers, must have faith in the inspired words of these self proclaimed representatives of the extraterrestrials. Doubts about their "revelations" are punished with insults, accusations and isolation of the "provocateurs". To keep things going, facts are twisted and natural phenomenon become evidences of the extraterrestrial presence. A balloon is never a balloon, and a Chinese lantern is a star-craft.

I started out believing that the “historical evidence” (the Pyramids, Nasca, the Mayan Calendar, etc) was overwhelming and irrefutable proof of visitors from other worlds, but 40 years of rational investigation has lead me to the inevitable conclusion that there is just no real evidence, no facts - only improbable and hypothetical theories which are presented as fact.

The believers keep on waiting for the predictions of the "alienologists" to come to pass, but they never do. So they must keep on waiting. The aliens never seem to come through. Perhaps, it is the aliens who are conspiring to make the “alienologists” and their followers look like crazies.

ET fantasies sell books and, through the Internet, give personal promotion to a few obscure and border line personalities, but they do very little to promote real scientific investigation of the UFO phenomenon.


Tomas Scolarici

(UNQUOTE)


http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

UFO subculture and its irrational promotion of extraterrestrial hypothesis

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com



1) ANNOUNCEMENT....(lecture on November 2, 2011 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico for Senior Citizens of Meadowlark Senior Center):

http://www.dukecityfix.com/xn/detail/1233957:Event:667693?xg_source=activity


2) ARTICLE:

Here is an important message from our colleague, Tomas Scolarici regarding UFO Subculture:

(QUOTE)

Many ufologists like Dr. Jaques Vallee and the writer of this text (Tomas Scolarici).....(count me in, too*), affirm the obvious: there are no evidences about the extraterrestrial origin of the UFO phenomenon.

UFOs are a rare phenomenon whose nature and origin remains unknown.

Contactees, deluded mystics, pseudo-scientists and professional charlatans, again and again give us class B science fiction as a fact.

The messages of the self proclaimed contactees are just a blend of New Age and pseudo-psychological rhetoric with no value at all.

The ET hypothesis is basically irrational and doesn’t resist any logical test.
Nothing valuable comes from these “aliens” at all.

Presumably these cosmic civilizations came to our planet to play hide and seek and talk some theosophical nonsense.

Of course we must recognize that the whole nonsensical and old-fashioned ET hypothesis gives some humans the real possibility of making a living selling books, lectures and recycled “wisdom”.

Rational ufologists consider the UFO phenomenon as it presents to our perception, and more important, analyze the so called UFO subculture and its metaphors.

The UFO subculture teaches us nothing about extraterrestrial life, but a lot about us, human beings.

http://ufoculture.blogspot.com/2011/08/dr-michael-salla-is-wrong_11.html

(UNQUOTE)

P.S.

Another short item by Tomas Scolarici:

(QUOTE):

DECONSTRUCTING UFOLOGY

The word Ufology ends with the suffix "logy", defined as “a branch of learning, a study of a particular subject.”
The whole word UFOLOGY means learning and studying the … (entity???) called Unidentified Flying Object.

Now, deconstructing our own neologisms, Ufology means learning and studying something unknown, consequently the word itself is an oxymoronic contradiction, because we cannot study something that is not only unknown but whose existence is not evident.

How can we learn about something that perhaps doesn’t exist?

Yes…yes I know that some of you will remember the word Theology which defines a “science” that pretends to investigate someone or something whose existence is non-evident and unproved, but precisely, in this contradiction, we find the key, the answer to our doubts..!

Theology only exists as the science of what people say about the presumed entity called “god”.

Ufology should be defined as the science that investigates what people say and write about Unidentified Flying Objects.


Now, diverse individuals tell us totally different and contradictory things about UFOs, and this is essential because probes that nobody knows what UFOs are (if they are something.)

Also this: Ufology doesn’t look for Truth in what people say and write about Aliens, Flying Saucers and extraterrestrials. That’s because we cannot find Truth in the contradictory and nonsensical discourse of the self proclaimed experts and contactees.

PD:

If you agree with all this, you are welcome, and so are you in disagreement.
By the way, I don’t believe that governments, cabals and intelligence agencies will spend 5 cents in this big carnival we call Ufology. Enjoy.

(UNQUOTE)



This is why, in order to expand our horizon in the study of UFO subculture, once in a while we need to take a look at sites such as the following:

http://badufos.blogspot.com/




3) ANNOUNCEMENT: New book on Area 51 coming out in December of 2011 (no aliens, no conspiracies):

http://www.amazon.com/Area-Images-Aviation-Peter-Merlin/dp/0738576204/ref

This is a no-nonsense book written by Peter Merlin, perhaps the most knowledgeable specialist on military aviation history and the history of Area 51 itself.




*Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

Gabe Valdez, former state patrol officer in charge of Dulce, New Mexico, passed away!!

Gabe Valdez, former state police officer in charge of the Dulce, New Mexico area, passed away!!:

http://www.dukecityfix.com/forum/topics/albuquerque-and-new-mexico-will-miss-officer-gabe-valdez-friend



by Norio Hayakawa
August 8, 2011

It is with deep sadness that I must inform everyone that our friend, colleague and hero, Gabe Valdez, passed away suddenly in his sleep on August 7, 2011 at his residence in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Gabe Valdez, 67, State Gaming Control Board investigator, was also a long-time State Patrol officer in charge of the Dulce, New Mexico area for many many years.

To many, he was the central figure in investigations on cattle mutilations and frequently reported sightings of strange flying objects that seem to have dominated the Jicarilla Apache town of Dulce, New Mexico since the mid 1970s.

Gabe worked with the late Paul Bennewitz from the very beginning in investigating the alleged rumors about an existence of an underground base in Archuleta Mesa, adjacent to Dulce.

He has truly become a legend.
There is no doubt in my mind that Gabe knew more about Dulce than what he reported to the public. And we may never know, now that he has passed away.

Gabe was a kind-hearted, soft-spoken and extremely likeable person.
He was generous and so courageous, something we should all strive for.
He helped so many people with his tireless effort in rendering assistance, almost 24-7, when needed.
May his soul rest in peace!

Here is a wonderful video tribute to the late Gabe Valdez:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_YPliZ7dTY&feature=player_embedded


Here are a few clips in which he appears and makes comments on this topic:

Dulce, New Mexico and Cattle Mutilations (2011):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iWhRMH_NCg


Gabe Valdez also appeared on History Channel's UFO Hunters program (of 2009) in this segment, the same segment in which I appeared:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK7XaHaOPDE&feature=related



Recently (2011) Gabe Valdez talked about cattle mutilations in an in-depth one-hour interview with Open Minds talk show (the second hour):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izweXJE5iu0


Gabe Valdez' take on Dulce, New Mexico is quite similar to mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZAlvqCM4v8


Cattle mutilations had nothing to do with aliens, said officer Gabe Valdez in this Channel 7 report of 2005:

http://www.koat.com/news/4492469/detail.html



P.S.

Gabe is survived by his wife, Margie; three sons; 5 grandchildren; a brother; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Funeral Services will be held on Friday, August 12, with Visitation from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., followed by Celebration of His Life from 9 a.m., both at the Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque, 4001 Osuna Rd., NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109.

Burial service will be held at 2 p.m. at Cebolla Cemetery, Cebolla, New Mexico, his hometown.
Reception will follow at Cebolla Community Center (across from cemtery).

For those that feel inclined to send flowers, please send to:

French Mortuary
7121 Wyoming Blvd.
Albuquerque, NM 87109

However, the family is in the process of setting up a donation account in lieu of flowers to aid surviving family members of NM State Police killed in the line of duty. That is still in the works and information will be posted once that is finalized.

Please see Electronic Obituary at:

http://hosting-24467.tributes.com/show/Gabriel-Valdez-92062275


from Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

Ted Gunderson, former FBI Special Agent-in-charge of Los Angeles, has passed away!!

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com




Friend and colleague, Ted Gunderson, has passed away

August 1, 2011
by Norio Hayakawa

Some very sad news has come to our attention.
With much sadness I have to inform everyone that Ted Gunderson, friend and colleague of the Civilian Intelligence Network, has lost his battle with cancer and has passed away on July 31, 2011.

Ted Gunderson was one of the finest, most noble Americans we have ever known.
May his soul rest in peace.
God bless Ted Gunderson for his 30 years of exposing outrageous government crime and corruption.

Those of us who knew Ted sorely miss his big smile, radiant personality and patriotic dedication to truth, justice and preserving the American way of life.


I first met Ted in 1992 in Arcadia, California, in a conference which Gary Schultz and I organized that exposed the dark side of the Wackenhut Corporation.

I heard him speak at a 1995 Patriot/Militia conference held in Palm Springs, after the OKC bombing incident.
It was Ted Gunderson who inspired me to get involved with the Patriot/Militia movement in 1995.

Ted Gunderson investigated the Ruby Ridge incident, the 1993 Waco incident, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing incident, the OKC bombing incident and countless number of covered-up incidents, not to mention the 9/11 incident of 2001.

My friend, Anthony J. Hilder, knew Ted Gunderson very well.
He and Ted did lots of conferences together.

Ted Gunderson also spoke at many conferences where I was also a speaker.

Ted Gunderson participated in our 1999 People's Rally at Area 51 to protest the government's environmental infractions at the site as well as to support the workers' rights for health compensation resulting from sickness caused by the use of hazardous, toxic chemicals:
http://www.dreamlandresort.com/area51/1999_rally.html

I can state that the Ted Gunderson that I personally knew was one of the kindest, gentlest persons that I have ever come to know.

He was a gentleman and a scholar in the truest sense of the word.
He will always remain our hero.


P.S.

Here are two classical clips from our hero, Ted Gunderson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2VpfUqRoo

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBHbJzproj0


P.S.

Important announcement from Ken Adachi, close friend and colleague of Ted Gunderson:

(QUOTE):

If anyone wishes to send condolence letters or cards, you can send them to Ted Gunderson's daughter Lori at:

Ted Gunderson
6230-A Wilshire Blvd. #6
Los Angeles, CA 90048

(note: this is the ONLY address to use when sending mail or donations to Ted's family. Any other address listed at other web sites soliciting donations on behalf of Ted Gunderson are not authorized or sanctioned by Ted's family. Ted's daughter Lori told me that she did not authorize Ted Gunderson's former webmaster at tedgunderson.net to change Ted's mailing address to "Tiny Stars" of Malibu, California and that any donations or mail being sent to Tiny Stars is NOT being forwarded to Ted's family. Only Ted Gunderson' daughter, Lori, has access to the address shown above and she is not in contact or communication with Ted's former webmaster. If you wish to support Ted Gunderson's family, then please address all communications to the above listed address--and no other)

If you wish to send an e-mail to Ted's family, send me an e-mail with the words "Ted Gunderson condolence" in the subject line and I will forward your e-mail to Ted's daughter's, Lori.

(END QUOTE)

P.S.

Unfortunately, I have found out that it is extremely difficult to get in touch with Ken Adachi through e-mail.


One place to try is:

http://educate-yourself.org/contactus/index.shtml


Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

Tomas Scolarici's excellent article on Rational Ufology

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com



Here is an excellent article on Rational Ufology, written by Tomas Scolarici.

(QUOTE):

by Tomas Scolarici
Sunday, July 24, 2011

What rational ufologists can do.


Question: is it possible to talk about Rational Ufology? The answer is YES.

Let us consider the following characteristics of the UFO phenomenon:

Since more than 90% of the sightings become identified flying objects, the remaining 10% of such sightings are a rare, infrequent occurrence.

After decades of research, it’s obvious for me, that there are not enough evidences to define the UFO as an extraterrestrial phenomenon. Extraterrestrial hypothesis, ETH, is just a theory but not a fact.

This ET meme wrongly suggests that the phenomenon must have an outcome, a finale: the contact between us and these hypothetical aliens.

However, UFO sightings are not a contemporary event but there are enough historical testimonies showing that there were always sightings, at least from the beginning of historical times.

This fact suggests that one of the characteristics of the UFO events is the lack of contact.

There never was and probably never will be any contact between us and the hypothetical ufonauts.

In other words contact is not one of the characteristics of the UFO phenomenon.

In fact the UFO mystery suggests the existence of a program, instead of the activities of biological entities.

In my perspective, the UFO phenomenon “behaves” as a computer program that, of course, we cannot understand. This program is doing his job, no matter what we believe or disbelieve.

False expectatives are negative and futile.

Now, if we consider the whole UFO phenomenon as a program, we cannot expect the fulfillment of our expectations, mostly products of science-fiction models.

Rational Ufology should remain aware of this rare phenomenon that cohabits with us in this planet Earth, and also analyze the sightings and the sociological and psychological impact of the UFO mystery in our human conscience.

That is why we are interested in fantasists, charlatans, neo-cultists and even borderline personalities.

This is what we can do, if we want to learn something about us and about the UFO Program.

Tomas Scolarici

(UNQUOTE)


Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com


P.S.

by Norio Hayakawa:

My views on the UFO phenomenon are similar to those of Tomas Scolarici's and also to those of Dr. Jacques Vallee (and John A. Keel).

Here are some of my articles that I have written in the past couple of years on the topic of UFOs (and also some relevant items):

My perspective on the UFO phenomenon

Annie Jacobsen's book........AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base

Albuquerque, New Mexico and UFO subculture

Enigmatic personalities behind the initial Dulce underground base rumors

Some old but fascinating reports from Dulce, New Mexico residents

The historic Dulce base conference in Dulce, New Mexico on March 29, 2009 !!

Nevada Test Site gets new name (N2S2)....its impact on Area 51 !!

Top Priority U.S. Military Report claims "Apocalyptic Christians" and the Second Coming of the Christ could pose a serious threat to world peace !!

The most spectacular UFO sighting in U.S. history: 1950 Farmington, New Mexico !!

Behind the mysterious crash of a helicopter near Area 51 in 1991

The strange behavior of Col. John Alexander in the early 1990s

The strange behavior of Bob Lazar (alleged former Area 51 "scientist")

William Cooper, a manipulated misinformant of the 90's?

My "connections" to Area 51

My visits with Lyndon LaRouche and Victor Marchetti in 1994



http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

The difference between a conspiracy theorist and a conspiratologist

by Norio Hayakawa
June 24, 2011
E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com


There is a world of a difference between a conspiracy theorist and a conspiratologist.

It seems to me that the word "conspiratology" has never been officially recognized or defined correctly in the dictionary.
It is a word that was claimed to have been coined by several individuals over the last three decades or so.

As far as I know, one of the first persons to have coined that word (although in a wrong context) was Gary Schultz of Santa Monica, California, who was a former colleague of mine in the early 1990s when I was active in an informal group called the Civilian Intelligence Network.

What Gary Schultz actually meant was that he was a conspiracy theorist. Instead, he accidentally described himself as a conspiratologist.

A conspiracy theorist is a person who openly espouses (believes in) a conspiracy theory or conspiracy theories.

A conspiratologist is a person who simply studies about conspiracy theories.

Conspiratology is a comprehensive study on the origins, the role and effects of beliefs in conspiracy theories on society.

It is a general study on why beliefs in conspiracy theories or conspiratorial worldview are deeply ingrained in the psyche of a segment of human society.

(The Newsweek Magazine made a comment a few years ago that beliefs in conspiracy theories have become as American as apple pie.)

There are many conspiracy theorists but conspiratologists seem to be few in number.

Therefore it is important to bear in mind that a conspiratologist does not espouse any conspiracy theory at all.
(However, if he does, he will only give an impression to the public that he does not subscribe to conspiracy theories.)

A conspiratologist simply studies and evaluates the impact of beliefs in conspiracy theories on society and how people's beliefs in such theories could be manipulated or benefited by an individual or individuals (who may or may not represent an organized group, such as certain governmental agencies or the military), partly in order to bring about certain agendas, to conceal certain agendas, or to detract attention away from certain agendas, such as muddying the waters of certain agendas.

Creation and manipulation of certain "cover stories" play a vital role in such operations.

Many large defense contractors have someone who skillfully creates "cover stories" as a means to mislead curiosity seekers among the civilian public especially during certain technological testing phases for covert or innovative programs.

For example, a creation and manipulation of such "cover stories" may have taken place during the mid 1980s to the early 1990s when several sensitive projects such as stealth technology, hypersonic spy planes as well as remotely-controlled platforms such as UAV and UCAV programs were conducted at locations such as at Area 51.

Bringing about the "laughter curtain" to the public (for example, by creation of UFO stories or "alien" technology stories to the goings-on at the Groom Lake complexes in Nevada) seems to have been a strategy conceived by both the defense contractors and the Air Force).

Going back to the idea of manipulation of beliefs in conspiracy theories, it is said that on occasion, an individual or individuals (who may or may not represent an organized group such as certain governmental agencies or the miitary) , may even assume and play the role of a "conspiracy theorist", posing himself as one, i.e., implanting himself as a "mole" in a segment of society, such as among UFO organizations like MUFON, etc.) in order to gather information on what the public or a segment of the public knows about certain specific agenda.

Immediately after the end of World War II, when a large number of German scientists, engineers and former SS intelligence officers were brought to the U.S. to places such as Kirtland Army Air Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico (present-day Kirtland AFB) in 1945 (through the U.S. program called Operation Paperclip), the U.S. did benefit from acquisition of SS offcers' know-how in intelligence operations and techniques.

The German officers were skilled in the use of certain intelligence operations and strategies, such as the use and manipulation of misinformation along with the creation of disinformation, as well as intentional "staging" of certain events to deflect the enemy's espionage attempts to scrutinize sensitive projects being conducted.

By the way, many German scientists and engineers were transferred to places in New Mexico such as Los Alamos Laboratories. Others, especially those who specialties were in rocketry and various types of experimental aircraft were transferred to locations such as White Sands missiles ranges and adjacent areas where many tests of various types were apparently conducted in 1946, 1947 and 1948.

(Even until a few years ago, the presence of German pilots in air bases such as Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico has been quite noticeable. Holloman Air Force Base seems to have had a special relationship with the German Air Force for many years.)

It is quite possible that "cover stories" along with disinformation tactics (and even "staged" incidents) were used by the U.S. military in order to conceal certain sensitive testings at locations such as Whites Sands and other nearby desert areas of New Mexico in 1946, 1947 and 1948.

When the CIA was established as a successor organization to OSS in 1947, the role of former German SS officers was quite significant.

The same can be said of NSA, which was also established in 1947.

The intentional creation of paranoia (as well as creation of conspiracy theories, to a great extent) may have been a minor but important element in the vast areas of intelligence operations that the CIA and other U.S. agencies have acquired all these years from the former SS intelligence agents.


P.S.

Please check the following item: (You will know right away where I am coming from):

WHERE I STAND ON "UFOs", "BELIEFS IN UFOs" AND OTHER TOPICS


http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

Anonymous source for Area 51 book revealed !! (Alfred O'Donnell of EG & G)

from Norio Hayakawa at Civilian Intelligence Central


May 30, 2011
by Norio Hayakawa
E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com


Here is the latest on the controversy behind Annie Jacobsen's fascinating and provocative book.
But before you read the above item (which is located near the end of this blog), please read the following:

Was it counter disinformation over intended disinformation on the part of the anonymous interviewee?

Whatever the case may be, it had become (intentionally or not) a brilliant strategy for her book!!

Annie Jacobsen's book is well written, riveting and thought-provoking!!

The interesting question, however, is: Did she intentionally allow many gullible reviewers (even a few military aviation enthusiasts who fell into this strategy) to exclusively focus on the controversy (i.e., the last 8 pages which have little to do with the rest of her thick and rather straightforward book)?

Indeed it seems that most reviewers (including a New York Times reviewer, and even L.A. Times itself) were sidetracked by this provocative item and unwittingly played a role in sensationalizing her book.
Her 'anonymous' interviewee (no longer anonymous....Alfred O'Donnell of EG &G) may also have fallen for the trap by agreeing to throw in an obvious piece of disinfo* (which he may well have been aware of, as well as Jacobsen herself....as disinfo*) for her book.
The strategy seemed to have worked and the book became a top-seller.
It was quite brilliant.



* The book definitely brings up a very important topic, i.e., the significance of Operation Paperclip that played a major role in the subsequent development of America's Black Budget programs.

It has always been my understanding that in 1945, immediately after the end of World War II, the U.S. brought in many German scientists and engineers (as well as some former SS intelligence officers) to New Mexico through that program.

After arriving at Wright Patterson Army Air Field in Ohio, it is said that many were then transferred and initially stationed at Albuquerque's Kirtland Army Air Field (present Kirtland AFB). Some of the scientists and engineers were then relocated to Los Alamos.

Others were transferred to White Sands Missile Ranges.
Many of the German engineers played some significant roles in the development and testing of U.S. rocketry (as well as other military projects) in the late 1940's.

It has always been my understanding that the U.S. military also secretly began to test-fly several prototypes of unconventional, flying wing aircraft (some with Ramjet engines) which the Germans developed in the early 1940's, including a few of the Horten brothers' flying wings.

(All this, in addition to possibly other even more 'unconventional' German aircraft.)

It is said that one of the Horten brothers' fying wing aircraft may even have reached speeds of up to 500 miles per hour when tested in Germany in 1943, even though it had a limited range of less than 1000 miles.

With the help of these scientists and engineers, it is my conjecture that the U.S. military secretly conducted these flight tests over the deserts of southern New Mexico in 1946 and 1947.
Other flight tests may also have been conducted in wide areas in the Western states, extending from Washington all the way to Texas.

Some of these prototypes of flying wing aircraft were crescent-shaped. Some others were delta-shaped or manta ray-shaped.

It is very possible that accidental crashes of some of these craft may have necessitated the creation (and even "staging") of convenient "cover stories".

Therefore it is my personal belief that it was the U.S., and not Stalin and the Soviets, that acquired several of the most technologically significant flying wing prototypes (and information pertaining to that technology).

Stalin and the Soviets, no doubt, also got hold of many German scientists and engineers through their own "version" of Paperclip but it is my conjecture that what may have crashed in New Mexico was not from Soviet Russia. It was most likely of German origin, acquired, modified and developed further by the U.S. and test-flown by the U.S. within New Mexico.

And this, I believe is the crux of the so-called 'disinformation' (the Stalin and Soviet Russia's role) intentionally thrown in by the 'anonymous' interviewee (Alfred O'Donnell of EG & G) in Annie Jacobsen's book.

So here it is:

Anonymous source for Area 51 book revealed!!

http://bragalia.blogspot.com/2011/05/area-51-book-exposed-source-for-roswell.html


P.S.

By the way, it is obvious by now that this book has become a very sensitive and emotional issue and has created an awkward situation especially among some of those who were directly involved at Area 51 and had sacrificed so much in fulfilling their patriotic assignments.

Here is what T.D. Barnes, president of the Roadrunners Internationale (association of former Area 51 employees), said of Annie Jacobsen's book on AREA 51:

"Instead of enjoying a great book that the DOD and DOE families can be proud of and share with their families, the aging Roadrunners are having to show up at Jacobsen's book signings, not to promote her book, but to set the record straight and clear their names and legacy. However, take away the final chapter, Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base is a great book that Annie Jacobsen put her heart and soul into and is CERTAINLY ONE THAT SHOULD BE READ".

T.D. Barnes
President, Roadrunners Internationale

http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com


The CIVILIAN INTELLIGENCE CENTRAL on Facebook

Bob Lazar appears on PBS News Hour!!..."How Tough Is It To Build A Dirty Bomb?"

from Norio Hayakawa at Civilian Intelligence Central



May 27, 2011
by Norio Hayakawa

Bob Lazar appears on PBS News Hour on 02/08/2011:

How Tough Is It To Build A Dirty Bomb?

http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=61





Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakwa2012.blogspot.com

Albuquerque, New Mexico and UFO subculture

from Norio Hayakawa at Civilian Intelligence Central


http://www.dukecityfix.com/forum/topics/albuquerque-new-mexico-and-ufo

by Norio Hayakawa

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com

April 27, 2011


New Mexico is officially the Land of Enchantment.
However, it seems that there are some who take this state motto almost literally and even believe that it is indeed the Land of Enchantment in more ways than one.

Some even seem to regard New Mexico as a state that has always been (and continues to be) filled with unexplained mysteries, especially when it comes to UFOs and paranormal phenomena.

Of course New Mexico has Roswell, world famous for its alleged 1947 "crash" incident.
What really took place in July of 1947 outside of Roswell no one knows for sure.
Perhaps there may be prosaic explanations to that incident.
But, again, no one knows for sure.

We have also heard about alleged crashes near Corona, also near Magdalena and in the Plains of San Agustin, all in New Mexico.

The bottom line to me is that whether it really took place or not ( i.e., the alleged crash of an "extraterrestrial" spacecraft, as had been so claimed and described by witnesses at that time) is really not what matters the most.

Besides, it seems that we do not have a single publicly acknowledged solid, tangible, physical, irrefutable documentary evidence that we have ever been (or are being) visited by physical extraterrstrial aliens in physical extraterrestrial spacecraft.

But this does not mean at all that the UFO phenomenon does not exist.
In fact, the UFO phenomenon seems to remain a great mystery, even from time immemorial.
It's just that we cannot come to any hasty conclusions equating this phenomenon with physical extraterrestrial visitations.
That's the bottom line.

But what is more important than all this is the indelible psychological imprint this type of alleged incidents has left in the "psyche" of a segment of the population and created a subculture of its own.

Besides Roswell we also have Socorro, site of a well-known April, 1964 alleged landing incident, allegedly witnessed by a Highway Patrol officer by the name of Lonnie Zamora.

(Speaking of April of 1964, some "ufologists" even seem to claim that a contact/landing incident had also taken place at Holloman Air Force Base at White Sands Missile Range.)

And, just east of Socorro and next to the northern limits of White Sands Missile Range is a small town called San Antonio where rumors have existed of a crash of what was then described as a mysterious object in the summer of 1945.

(By the way, it is said that in 1945, immediately after the conclusion of World War II, hundreds of German scientists, engineers and even some former SS intelligence officers were brought to the U.S. through a program called Operation Paperclip. Many were said to have arrived from Ohio's Wright Patterson Army Air Base and temporarily housed at Albuquerque's Kirtland Army Air Base - Kirtland AFB today. Some of these German scientists were then transferred to Los Alamos National Laboratory. Some were transferred to White Sands Missile Ranges for various testing projects such as rocketry and other military technological projects. So, they say....)

And if we look towards the Four Corners area we have Farmington (site of an alleged mass sightings of UFOs in March of 1950), Aztec (site of an alleged 1948 "crash" outside the town) and Dulce (site of an alleged underground base and bio-lab, as well as being the site of numerous "cattle mutilations" that took place especially between the mid 1970s and the 1980s) and many other places filled with UFO lore.

In northern New Mexico we also have Taos, site of the many claims of strange "hums" reportedly heard by many residents in the early 1980s.

In northeastern New Mexico we have a small town of Cimarron where, in 1979, a lady by the name of Myrna Hansen claimed to have experienced an alien abduction, the first of its kind in New Mexico.
This case had received quite an attention, especially since an Albuquerque scientist and defense contractor, the late Paul Bennewitz of Thunder Scientific Corporation (that still does business with Kirtland AFB), investigated this case and led him to theorize that she may have been temporarily taken into an underground facilty in Dulce.

(Or was this all part of Psychological Operations program created and manipulated by the OSI at Kirtland AFB?)

Yes, this all sounded too bizarre (and continues to be so) to most people who are in the mainstream of society.

Everything discussed so far has been brought up with the important qualifer, "alleged".

But from here on, let me give you some facts, not allegations.

New Mexico is home to Los Alamos National Laboratories, probably the nation's most advanced conglomerate research community, even in the field of DNA/genetics research.

(By the way, here is an interesting fact. Most people today haven't the slightest knowledge that in December of 1967, the U.S. government had exploded a nuclear device in northern New Mexico, a mile and a half underground, just southwest of Dulce, purportedly to ease the flow of natural gas thought to have been entrapped beneath beneath layers and layers of hard rocks. That experiment was called Project Gasbuggy. The Ground Zero site of this 1967 experiment is open to the public today. There is a government plaque there that marks the exact spot. A few years ago I had a privilege of visiting this site, guided by a Jicarilla Apache person from Dulce.)

In Southern New Mexico, there is the White Sands Missile Range where America's most advanced directed energy weapons (laser/microwave) systems are being tested.

But there is more to it.

Albuquerque itself is the site of Kirtland Air Force Base, Manzano Underground Nuclear Storage Facility, as well as Sandia Labs and Phillips/Air Force Research Labs, probably two of America's most advanced military technological research labs.

Yes, there is a large presence of defense contractors, engineers and scientists who live in the Albuquerque area.
They say that in New Mexico there are more scientists and engineers per population than in any other state.
(Despite the ironical fact that when it comes to public education, New Mexico ranks about 48th nationally).

Whether one is a believer or a skeptic in all this, it is nevertheless fascinating to observe how a segment of the population's beliefs have impacted the society, culture and subculture, especially here in the Land of Enchantment.

This is all about beliefs.
It is similar to religious beliefs.
It is human nature to have religious beliefs and it has little to do with educational levels of the person.
Even a nuclear physicist may have no qualms about believing in God or in angels or demons.

What is "reality" to one person may not be the same as another person's view of "reality".
The study of various levels of "reality' as well as "dimensions and time" is a very important aspect of quantum physics today.

The bottom line to all this is that we still do not know for sure what "reality" is.

Norio Hayakawa
http://noriohayakawa2012.blogspot.com

Why old hoaxes make Cosmic Preachers happy - - a commentary by Tomas Solarici

E-mail = noriohayakawa@gmail.com


Here is a commentary by Tomas Solarici (a.k.a. James Black)

(QUOTE):

Why? just because there is nothing else to say-write.
The UFO=Extraterrestrial hypothesis is dead. In 60 years, the same old pulp-fiction kind of fantasies are repeated again and again showing either a total lack of imagination, or the Nothing Happens Syndrome in action.

Obviously, the comment about the "three small ufonauts in metal clothes " was enough to show the trivialscience fiction of the 50's.
I believe that some or the EXOfantasists themselves also saw the bad joke, but... they needed desperately to give some hope to the UFO_ET true believers.

Tomorrow, or the next week they will be back talking about same old things, Adamsky and the lovely white Venusians, Basiago time travels, Eisenhower's grandaughter in our colony of mars and things like these.

The alternative is to spend some time into the rarefied world of Conspiracy Theories that doesn't require any kind of evidence.

(UNQUOTE)

THOSE WHO WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH:

The real problem here is not if Unidentified Aerial Phenomena exist. Of course UAP (UFO) exist.

The authentic dilemma is what these UAP are.

Now if you want to know the truth, you must do research. On the contrary, if you want to sell books of promote yourself; then you must go into some kind of new religion, because religion doesn’t work with evidences, but with Faith.

If you are into this, you only need a charismatic individual who will teach you what was revealed to him/her by gods, angels, ghosts or extraterrestrials.

Consequently, all those who ask for evidences are ipso facto condemned because they don’t have Faith.

It’s simple like that.

If you believe that UFO are extraterrestrial crafts, and you recognize that this is hypothetic, that is fine. You will work with your hypothesis and try to find evidences.

Personally, after 40 years of research, I think that the entities responsible for the unidentified phenomenon are not extraterrestrials. I think also that we have historical evidences that the UFO phenomenon is with us from the beginning of times. (See UFO in art and historical narrative.)

Now, I don’t know who these entities are, but they behave as Time Travelers. Perhaps they just come from our distant future. Apparently any direct contact would be impossible if they do not want to disrupt the time continuum. (Think in the paradox of not killing your grandparents if you want to exist.)

Possible I am wrong. Mine is nothing but a hypothesis, and if I begin to talk about the messages of the time travelers, this means that I am insane. There are not such messages.

Perhaps the Entities are not time travelers, but something else, something that I cannot understand at all; something so complex that nobody can understand.

What I cannot do is to talk about what I ignore. Those who do this are either charlatans or crazy.

Tomas Scolarici

--------
Norio Hayakawa

Tomas Scolarici's excellent article: LEGAL FALLACIES IN CONSPIRACY THEORY

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Here is an excellent article written by Tomas Scolarici on Conspiracy Theories:

(by Tomas Scolarici/James Black)

March 14, 2011

(QUOTE):

Most conspiracy theories don't make sense nor withstand any scrutiny. They usually involve operations so immense that it's basically impossible for them to be kept secret, and all the proof given by conspiracy theorists usually have a very simple explanation (usually much simpler than the explanation given by the theorists).

Yet conspiracy theories are very popular and appealing. Even when they don't make sense and there's just no proof, many people still believe them. Why?

One big reason for this is that some conspiracy theorists are clever. They use psychology to make their theories sound more plausible. They appeal to certain psychological phenomena which make people to tend to believe them. However, these psychological tricks are nothing more than logical fallacies. They are simply so well disguised that many people can't see them for what they are.

Here are some typical logical fallacies used by conspiracy theorists:

Appeal to the "bandwagon effect"

The so-called "bandwagon effect" is a psychological phenomenon where people are eager to believe things if most of the people around them believe that too. Sometimes that thing is true and there's no harm, but sometimes it's a misconception, urban legend or, in this case, an unfounded conspiracy theory, in which case the "bandwagon effect" bypasses logical thinking for the worse.

The most typical form of appealing to the bandwagon effect is to say something along the lines of "30% of Americans doubt that..." or "30% of Americans don't believe the official story". This is also called an argumentum ad populum, which is a logical fallacy.

Of course that kind of sentence in the beginning of a conspiracy theory doesn't make any sense. It doesn't prove anything relevant. It's not like the theory becomes more true if more people believe in it.

Also the percentage itself is always very dubious. It may be completely fabricated or exaggerated by interpreting the poll results conveniently (eg. one easy way for bumping up the percentage is to interpret all people who didn't answer or who didn't know what to say as "doubting the official story"). Even if it was a completely genuine number, it would still not be proof of anything else than that there's a certain amount of gullible people in the world.

That kind of sentence is not proof of anything, yet it's one of the most used sentences in conspiracy theories. It tries to appeal to the bandwagon effect. It's effectively saying: "Already this many people doubt the official story, and the numbers are increasing. Are you going to be left alone believing the official story?"

Appeal to rebellion

Conspiracy theories in general, and the "n% of people doubt the story" claims in particular, also appeal to a sense of rebellion in people.
As Wikipedia puts it, "a rebellion is, in the most general sense, a refusal to accept authority."
People don't want to be sheep who are patronized by authority and told what they have to do and how they have to think. People usually distrust authorities and many believe that authorities are selfish and abuse people for their own benefit. This is an extremely fertile ground for conspiracy theories.

This is so ingrained in people that a sentence like "the official story" has basically become a synonym for "a coverup/lie". Whenever "the official story" is mentioned, it immediately makes people think that it's some kind of coverup, something not true.

Conspiracy theorists are masters at abusing this psyhcological phenomenon for their advantage. They basically insinuate that "if you believe the official story then you are gullible because you are being lied to". They want to make it feel that doubting the original story is a sign of intelligence and logical thinking. However, believing a conspiracy theory usually shows, quite ironically, a great lack of logical thinking.

This is an actual quote from a JFK assassination conspiracy theory website. It's almost as hilarious as it is contradictory:
In the end, you have to decide for yourself what to believe. But don't just believe what the U.S. Government tells you!
(In other words, believe anything you want except the official story!)

Shotgun argumentation

"Shotgun argumentation" is a metaphor from real life: It's much easier to hunt a rabbit with a shotgun than with a rifle. This is because a rifle only fires one bullet and there's a high probability of a miss. A shotgun, however, fires tens or even hundreds of small pellets, and the probability of at least one of them hitting the rabbit is quite high.
Shotgun argumentation has the same basic idea: The more small arguments or "evidence" you present in favor of some claim, the higher the probability that someone will believe you regardless of how ridiculous those arguments are. There are two reasons for this:

Firstly, just the sheer amount of arguments or "evidence" may be enough to convince someone that something strange is going on. The idea is basically: "There is this much evidence against the official story, there must be something wrong with it." One or two pieces of "evidence" may not be enough to convince anyone, but collect a set of a couple of hundreds of pieces of "evidence" and it immediately starts being more believable.

Of course the fallacy here is that the amount of "evidence" is in no way proof of anything. The vast majority, and usually all of this "evidence" is easily explainable and just patently false. There may be a few points which may be more difficult to explain, but they alone wouldn't be so convincing.

Secondly, and more closely related to the shotgun metaphor : The more arguments or individual pieces of "evidence" you have, the higher the probability that at least some of them will convince someone. Someone might not get convinced by most of the arguments, but among them there may be one or a few which sounds so plausible to him that he is then convinced. Thus one or a few of the "pellets" hit the "rabbit" and killed it: Mission accomplished.

I have a concrete example of this:

I had a friend who is academically educated, a MSc, and doing research work (relating to computer science) at a university. He is rational, intelligent and well-educated.
Yet still this person, at least some years ago, completely believed the Moon hoax theory. Why? He said to me quite explicitly that there was one thing that convinced him: The flag moving after it had been planted on the ground.
One of the pellets had hit the rabbit and killed it. The shotgun argumentation had been successful.

If even highly-educated academic people can fall for such "evidence" (which is easily explained), how more easily are more "regular" people going to believe the sheer amount of them? Sadly, quite a lot more easily.

Most conspiracy theorists continue to present the same old tired arguments which are very easy to prove wrong. They need all those arguments, no matter how ridiculous, for their shotgun argumentation tactics to work.

Straw man argumentation

A "straw man argument" is the process of taking an argument of the opponent, distorting it or taking it out of context so that it basically changes meaning, and then ridiculing it in order to make the opponent look bad.
For example, a conspiracy theorist may say something like: "Sceptics argue that stars are too faint to see in space (which is why there are no stars in photographs), yet astronauts said that they could see stars."

This is a perfect example of a straw man argument. That's taking an argument completely out of context and changing its meaning.

It's actually a bit unfortunate that many debunking sites use the sentence "the stars are too faint to be seen" when explaining the lack of stars in photographs. That sentence, while in its context not false, is confusing and misleading. It's trying to put in simple words a more technical explanation (which usually follows). Unfortunately, it's too simplistic and good material for straw man arguments. I wish debunkers stopped using simplistic sentences like that one.
(The real explanation for the lacking stars is, of course, related to the exposure time and shutter aperture of the cameras, which were set to photograph the Moon surface illuminated by direct sunlight. The stars are not bright enough for such short exposure times. If the cameras had been set up to photograph the stars, the lunar surface would have been completely overexposed. This is basic photography.)

Another straw man, still related to stars, which I have seen is simply "they claim that you can't see stars in space" (referring to some kind of notion that stars are too small and far away to be seen directly, and that they are visible from Earth only because the atmosphere scatters their light making them look bigger). This is simply a lie. I don't think any debunker has ever said that a person cannot see stars in space. (Even if someone has, he is obviously wrong. However, that's irrelevant to whether the explanation for the lack of stars is wrong or not.)

Citing inexistent sources

There's a very common bad habit among the majority of people: They believe that credible sources have said/written whatever someone claims they have said or written. Even worse, most people believe that a source is credible or even exists just because someone claims that it is credible and exists. People almost never check that the source exists, that it's a credible source and that it has indeed said what was claimed.

Conspiracy theorists know this and thus abuse it to the maximum. Sometimes they fabricate sources or stories, and sometimes they just cite nameless sources (using expressions like "experts in the field", "most astronomers", etc).

This is an actual quote from the same JFK assassination conspiracy theory website as earlier:
Scientists examined the Zapruder film. They found that, while most of it looks completely genuine, some of the images are impossible. They violate the laws of physics. They could not have come from Zapruder's home movie camera.

Needless to say, the web page does not give any references or sources, or any other indication of who these unnamed "scientists" might be or what their credentials are. (My personal guess is that whenever the website uses the word "scientist" or "researcher", it refers to other conspiracy theorists who have no actual education and competence on the required fields of science, and who are, like all such conspiracy theorists, just seeing what they want to see.)

Citing sources which are wrong

A common tactic of conspiracy theorists is to take statements by credible persons or newspaper articles which support the conspiracy theory and present these statements or articles as if they were the truth. If a later article in the same newspaper corrects the mistake in the earlier article or if the person who made the statement later says that he was wrong or quoted out of context (ie. he didn't mean what people thought he was meaning), conspiracy theorists happily ignore them.
Since people seldom check the sources, they will believe that the statement or newspaper article is the only thing that person or newspaper has said about the subject.

This is closely related to (and often overlaps with) the concept of quote mining (which is the practice of carefully selecting small quotes, which are often taken completely out of context, from a vast selection of material, in such a way that these individual quotes seem to support the conspiracy theory).
Sometimes that source is not credible (because it's just another conspiracy theorist) but people have little means of knowing this.

Cherry-picking

Cherry-picking is more a deliberate act of deception than a logical fallacy, but nevertheless an extremely common tactic.
Cherry-picking happens when someone deliberately selects from a wide variety of material only those items which support the conspiracy theory, while ignoring and discarding those which don't. When this carefully chosen selection of material is then presented as a whole, it easily misleads people into thinking that the conspiracy theory is supported by evidence.

This is an especially popular tactic for the 9/11 conspiracy theorists: They will only choose those published photographs which support their claims, while outright ignoring those which don't. The Loose Change "documentary" is quite infamous for doing this, and pulling it out rather convincingly.

The major problem with this is, of course, that it's pure deception: The viewer is intentionally given only carefully selected material, while leaving out the parts which would contradict the conspiracy theory. This is a deliberate act. The conspiracy theorists cannot claim honesty while doing clear cherry-picking.

Just one example: There's a big electrical transformer box outside the Pentagon which was badly damaged by the plane before it hit the building. It's impossible for that box to get that damage if the building was hit by a missile, as claimed by conspiracy theorists (the missile would have exploded when hitting the box, several tens of meters away from the building). Conspiracy theorists will usually avoid using any photographs which show the damaged transformer box because it contradicts their theory. They are doing this deliberately. They cannot claim honesty while doing this.

Argument from authority

Scientists are human, and thus imperfect and fallible. Individual scientists can be dead wrong, make the wrong claims and even be deceived into believing falsities. Being a scientist does not give a human being some kind of magic power to resist all deceptions and delusions, to see through all tricks and fallacies and to always know the truth and discard what is false.

But science does not stand on individual scientists, for this exact reason. This is precisely why the scientific process requires so-called peer reviews. One scientist can be wrong, ten scientists can be wrong, and even a hundred scientists can be wrong, but when their claims are peer-reviewed and studied by the whole scientific community, the likelihood of the falsities not being caught decreases dramatically.

It's very likely that someone somewhere is going to object and to raise questions if there's something wrong with a claim, and this will raise the consciousness of the whole community. Either the objections are dealt with and explained, or the credibility of the claim gets compromised. A claim does not become accepted by the scientific community unless it passes the peer reviewing test. And this is why science works. It does not rely on individuals, but on the whole.

Sometimes some individual scientists can be deceived into believing a conspiracy theory. As said, scientists do not have any magical force that keeps them from being deceived. Due to their education the likelihood might be slightly lower than with the average person, but in no way is it completely removed. Scientists can and do get deceived by falsities.

Thus sometimes the conspiracy theorists will convince some PhD or other such person of high education and/or high authority, and if this person becomes vocal enough, the conspiracy theorists will then use him as an argument pro the conspiracy. It can be rather convincing if conspiracy theorists can say "numerous scientists agree that the official explanation cannot be true, including (insert some names here)".
However, this is a fallacy named argument from authority. Just because a PhD makes a claim doesn't make it true. Even if a hundred PhD's make that claim. It doesn't even make it any more credible.
As said, individual scientists can get deceived and deluded. However, as long as their claims do not pass the peer review process, their claims are worth nothing from a scientific point of view.

Argument from ignorance

In this fallacy the word "ignorance" is not an insult, but refers to the meaning of "not knowing something".
Simply put, argument from ignorance happens when something with no apparent explanation is pointed out (for example in a photograph), and since there's no explanation, it's presented as evidence of foul play (eg. that the photograph has been manipulated).

This can be seen as somewhat related to cherry-picking: The conspiracy theorist will point out something in the source material or the accounts of the original event which is not easy to immediately explain. A viewer with no experience nor expertise on the subject matter might be unable to come up with an explanation, or to identify the artifact/phenomenon. The conspiracy theorist then abuses this to claim that the unexplained artifact or phenomenon is evidence of fakery or deception.
Of course this is a fallacy. Nothing can be deduced from an unexplained phenomenon or artifact. As long as you don't know what it is, you can't take it as evidence of anything.
(In most cases such things have a quite simple and logical explanation; it's just that in order to figure it out, you need to have the proper experience on the subject, or alternatively to have someone with experience explain it to you. After that it becomes quite self-evident. It's a bit like a magic trick: When you see it, you can't explain how it works, but when someone explains it to you, it often is outright disappointingly simple.)
It might sound rather self-evident when explained like this, but people still get fooled in an actual situation.

Argument from (personal) incredulity

In its most basic and bare-bones from, argument from incredulity takes the form of "I can't even begin to imagine how this can work / be possible, hence it must be fake". This is a variation or subset of the argument from ignorance. Of course conspiracy theorists don't state the argument so blatantly, but use much subtler expressions.
Example: Some (although not all) Moon Landing Hoax conspiracy theorists state that the Moon Lander could have not taken off from the surface of the Moon, because a rocket on its bottom side would have made it rotate wildly and randomly.

In essence what the conspiracy theorist is saying is "I don't understand how rocketry can work, hence this must be fake", and trying to convince the reader of the same.
The problem of basic rocketry (ie. how a rocket with a propulsion system at its back end can maintain stability and fly straight) is indeed quite a complex and difficult one (which is where the colloquial term "rocket science", meaning something extremely complicated and difficult, comes from), but it was solved in the 1920's and 30's. This isn't even something you have to understand or even take on faith: It's something you can see with your own eyes (unless you believe all the videos you have ever seen of missiles and rockets are fake).

Pareidolia

Pareidolia is also not a logical fallacy per se, but more a fallacy of perception.
Pareidolia is, basically, the phenomenon which happens when we perceive recognizable patterns in randomness, even though the patterns really aren't there. For example, random blotches of paint might look like a face, or random noise might sound like a spoken word (or even a full sentence).

Pareidolia is a side effect of pattern recognition in our brain. Our visual and auditory perception is heavily based on pattern recognition. It's what helps us understanding spoken languages, even if it's spoken by different people with different voices, at different speeds and with different accents. It's what helps us recognizing objects even if they have a slightly different shape or coloring which we have never seen before. It's what helps us recognize people and differentiate them from each other. It's what helps us reading written text at amazing speeds by simply scanning the written lines visually (you are doing precisely that right now). In fact, we could probably not even survive without pattern recognition.
This pattern recognition is also heavily based on experience: We tend to recognize things like shapes and sounds when we have previous experience from similar shapes and sounds. Also the context helps us in this pattern recognition, often very significantly. When we recognize the context, we tend to expect certain things, which in turn helps us making the pattern recognition more easily and faster. For example, if you open a book, you already expect to see text inside, and you are already prepared to recognize it. In a context which is completely unrelated to written text (for a completely random example, if you are examining your fingernails) you are not expecting to see text, and thus you don't recognize it as easily.

Pareidolia happens when our brain recognizes, or thinks it recognizes, patterns where there may be only randomness, or in places which are not random per se, but completely unrelated to this purported "pattern".

As noted, pareidolia is greatly helped if we are expecting to see a certain pattern. This predisposes our brain to try to recognize that exact thing, making it easier.
This is the very idea in so-called backmasking: Playing a sound, for example a song, backwards and then recognizing something in the garbled sounds that result from this. When we are not expecting anything in particular, we usually only hear garbled noises. However, if someone tells us what we should expect, we immediately "recognize" it.

However, we are just fooling our own pattern recognition system into perceiving something which isn't really there. If someone else is told to expect a slightly similar-sounding, but different message, that other person is very probably going to hear that. You and that other person are both being mislead by playing with the pattern recognition capabilities of your brain.
Conspiracy theorists love abusing pareidolia. They will make people see patterns where there are none, and people will be fooled into believing that the patterns really are there, and thus are proof of something.

Posted by James Black/Tomas Scolarici

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