Month: February 2023

MJ-12: Continuity of Government (02/07/2023)

Introduction

From World War II on, the prospect of war in general, and nuclear war in particular, imposed grave concerns on government policy makers. Mass casualties, destruction of infrastructure and social chaos are ramifications of nuclear war. An atomic strike on Washington, D.C. would threaten the survival of the U.S. government itself.  Thus, the concept of “Continuity of Government” was born.

The Constitution has served as a brilliant framework for a successful republic, but it couldn’t foresee every crisis in the future. Although the survival of the U.S. population is a concern in an all-out nuclear exchange, the preservation of the population is beyond any scope of practicality. In the minds of policy makers, the durability of a functioning, remnant government was an imperative.

Government planners have focused on Presidential succession, the construction of secure physical facilities, the relocation of federal government employees, sustainable communications, and the designation of duplicate (“Shadow Government”) functions. Given the destructive capability of nuclear detonations, the US government has protected critical operations and communications by going underground.

From Truman onward, presidential administrations have updated and reorganized continuity of government plans and programs through numerous Executive Orders, National Security Action Memoranda, National Security Decision Directives, and Presidential Proclamations. Some of these plans became acutely interesting to journalists during the Reagan administration, which we will address.

These plans are some of the government’s most closely held secrets. 

We will explore how, combined with the several other issues discussed in this paper, continuity of government leaks inspired wild speculation among UFO groups throughout the 1990s and beyond.

Colonel John Alexander, MJ-12 and Continuity of Government

It was a Sunday afternoon at the 2022 annual Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) conference when Col. John Alexander, a guest speaker, took questions after his presentation. Alexander is a retired Army officer with a varied career. During the 1980s, as a sideline, he organized an informal effort to learn what the US government knew about UFOs. Colonel Alexander is the author of several books dealing with military issues as well as UFOs and paranormal subjects.  He speaks frequently at UFO conferences and has appeared on numerous radio programs, including the popular Coast to Coast broadcast.. 

The SCU conference is a yearly event that explores scientific approaches to UFO cases. Alexander’s talk was nearing its end when he took a question about Majestic Twelve (“MJ-12”). The subject of MJ-12 was an unusual one for a SCU conference. When the audience member inquired about Alexander’s opinion on the topic, he answered: “I learned from a highly placed source that MJ-12 did exist, but had nothing to do with UFOs”.1

During his military career in the 1980s, Col. Alexander created an unofficial group of military, intelligence and scientific contacts to learn more about what information the U.S. government actually had on UFOs.  In his book UFOs: myths, conspiracies, and realities, Alexander explained that he named the group the Advanced Theoretical Physics Project, and set about gathering information. Colonel Alexander declared:

“Is it possible the organization once existed and that a collection of influential people was brought together for some purpose? The answer may be yes. A reliable, vetted, and confidential source, who states he had access to MJ-12 material, indicated this was a real group. He also indicated that there would be no reports at the Department of Defense level as everything was controlled by the White House. However, he firmly acknowledges that the topics the group was involved in studying had nothing to do with the Roswell crash in particular or UFOs in general.” 

Alexander went on to assert that MJ-12 may have engaged in Continuity of Government (COG) plans, and that the individuals named in the purported Eisenhower Briefing Document (EIB) fit the task perfectly.2

Majestic Twelve – Was Its Purpose To Address Continuity of Government?

Was that actually the case?  In the following table, we examine the individuals on the MJ-12 list, who they were, their areas of expertise, and what they were doing in 1947 when President Truman allegedly authorized their formation.3 

MJ-12 MEMBERS
MEMBERBACKGROUND, SKILLS, EXPERIENCEPOSITION, ACTIVITIES IN 1947
Roscoe HillenkoetterCentral Intelligence Group, Director of Central Intelligence, CIA Director, Naval Rear AdmiralHead of Central Intelligence Group; CIA Director
Vannevar BushElectrical engineer, Senior research and development leaderChairman, Joint Research and Development Board; Chairman, Research and Development Board
James ForrestalSecretary of Defense, Secretary of the NavySecretary of Navy, Secretary of Defense
Nathan TwiningGeneral, U.S. Air Force, Air Material Command, Alaska Air CommandHead of Air Materiel Command, Wright Field. Head of Alaska Air Command
Hoyt VandenbergGeneral U.S. Air Force, Director of Central IntelligenceHead of Central Intelligence Group to May 1947; USAF Chief of Staff (Sept. 1947)
Detlev BronkBiophysicistJohnson Foundation, Chair of the Committee on Aviation Research of the Division of Medical Sciences of the National Research Council
Jerome HunsakerAeronautical EngineerChairman, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
Sidney SouersNavy Rear Admiral, Director of Central Intelligence, Secretary to the National Security Council, Advisor to President TrumanHead of Central Intelligence Group; Executive Secretary to the National Security Council
Gordon GraySenior advisor to the President on national security and defenseArmy member, Armed Forces Munitions Board; Assistant Secretary of the Army; “Gray Board” (6 man Interservice Committee to study reorganization and modernization of reserve forces) 
Donald MenzelAstronomer, CryptographerChairman, Astronomy Department, Harvard University
Robert MontagueSenior Officer U.S. Army, Stationed at Fort Bliss and Sandia Base.Deputy Commander, Army Air Defense Artillery Center, Ft. Bliss TX; Commander Sandia Missile Base
Lloyd BerknerAtmospheric physicist, knowledgeable in radio propagation, avionics, radarChairman, Executive Council of the Joint Research and Development Board
Walter Beddell SmithSenior Army Officer, Deputy to Eisenhower, CIA Director, Ambassador to the Soviet Union(1947) Ambassador to the Soviet Union. (Director, CIA 1950-1953) (In 1950, replaced James Forrestal)

We see that this group includes military members with intelligence experience, scientists, engineers and government advisors. All the persons on the list were either in senior positions in military and government, or as civilians, at the top of their respective fields.

Some of their backgrounds overlap. For example, Hillenkoetter, Vandenberg, Smith and Souers all were flag level officers in the military and each played roles in  what is now the CIA.  Souers, Smith and Gray were advisors to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower.  Bronk, Hunsaker, Berkner and Menzel were elite members of the scientific and engineering establishment. Bush ran the government’s research and development efforts. Montague had experience at Ft. Bliss during rocket development there, and with nuclear matters at Sandia Base in New Mexico.4

If a group was assembled to develop continuity of government plans, what qualifications would be needed? Government policy makers, architects, engineers, geologists, communications specialists and emergency logistics experts would be desirable. General Leslie Groves would be a logical possibility, since he had substantial experience in contracting for construction of the Pentagon and in the Manhattan project.  As we will see later, the Air Force people were familiar with underground facilities based on what they found in Germany at the conclusion of WWII. So, one or two representatives from the military might be included, although not at the chief of staff level. It would be appropriate to bring in one or more advisors with construction experience and communications expertise as well.

But why would a biophysicist (Bronk), an atmospheric physicist (Berkner), or least of all, an astronomer (Menzel) be needed? In terms of continuity of government planning, they make no sense.

What MJ-12 May Have Been

The Eisenhower Briefing Document has been roundly scrutinized by both supporters and critics.  No one questions that the people on the list existed and rendered valuable services in science and government. In this author’s opinion, the group listed in the Eisenhower Briefing Document doesn’t accord with a COG planning group. 

If we assume the Majestic Twelve committee existed as shown, but wasn’t concerned with UFOs, what might have been its purpose?

In 1947 the National Security Act had just become law. Having launched the national security state, the Pentagon, White House and Congress became embroiled in policy and budget fights. Officials were perturbed with Stalin’s agenda in central Europe, and they worried about his intentions toward the west. Scientists in Los Alamos anticipated the Soviets would have an atomic bomb by 1952. Given these circumstances,  a super secret project that could assist with intelligence collection in the Soviet Union would be of utmost importance.

Some speculation: A secret committee is formed to study the feasibility of a high altitude spy plane or supersonic bomber, possibly propelled by nuclear energy.  These are options that do fit the individuals on the MJ-12 list. A Secretary of Defense and an Air Force Chief of staff would have the clout to push through such a project, while scientists and engineers such as Vannevar Bush, and Jerome Hunsaker match the task perfectly.  Detlev Bronk is particularly important to this logic as he was a leader in aerospace medicine and high altitude studies. Lloyd Berkner was an expert in atmospheric physics and radio propagation. Persons with backgrounds in intelligence such as Vandenberg, Hillenkoetter and Souers would be consistent with the effort, as would presidential advisors like Gordon Gray.  Even Donald Menzel makes sense – as an astronomer he would have expertise in optics as well as a reputation in creating instrumentation. So while we see that the individuals on the MJ-12 list don’t fit a continuity of government objective well, they very much do so for a manned, high altitude aircraft project..

In 1946, Colonel Richard Leghorn was pushing the idea of a spy plane that could overfly the Soviet Union. Also In 1946, Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) began research under the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) program.5 (Nuclear powered aircraft research continued until 1961.)

This alternate explanation for MJ-12 is interesting, but there are problems with the timeline.  Leghorn had no success with the spy plane in the Pentagon, but revisited his agenda, attempting to convince General Curtis Lemay in 1954. Lemay rejected the idea. 

Annie Jacobsen, in her book Area – 51,  reported that President Eisenhower’s Science Advisory Committee was interested, and approached the CIA to manage a program. Under the CIA’s Richard Bissell, the Lockheed Corporation developed the spy plane. Work began in the Groom Lake area of Nevada in 1955, but a full eight years after the alleged MJ-12 committee was organized.6

The historical sequence doesn’t match up unless Leghorn (or someone acting on his behalf) made contact with the National Security Council in 1946 or 1947. The MJ-12 group could have been formed at that time, its existence held closely by the Truman White House (see the original quote from Dr. Alexander’s book above). 

And….the member list fits.

About Continuity of Government

President Truman is unique among American presidents, in that he saw the devastation in western Europe after WWII.  And, he approved the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. 

During the Truman administration, while United States policy elites were working to find a balance between wartime and peacetime priorities, the President worried about a future conventional or nuclear war and was inclined to think about continuity of government issues.  The State Department, CIA and the upper levels of the military services were arguing for a comprehensive national security posture in the belief that the United States would become enmeshed in a long-term struggle with the Soviet Union. This was in part due to George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” in 1946 about the Soviet threat. It was expected that the Soviets were developing an atom bomb.  These factors point to Truman forming a secret committee to study and make recommendations on the durability of the government in the event of war. 

The National Security Act of 1947 included two provisions that enabled the government to prepare emergency plans .  These were the National Security Resources Board, which in turn formed the Office of Civil Defense Planning and the Office of Civil Defense Preparedness. 

In 1952 Truman authorized Executive Order 10346, which ratified government planning and directed  departments of the federal government to prepare plans in the event of a civil defense emergency.7 By 1948, the government was already planning a hardened site for an Alternate Military Command Center, known today as “Raven Rock”, carved out of the side of the Blue Ridge Summit in Pennsylvania. Raven Rock was completed in 1953 and contained a full complement of facilities for a “Second Pentagon”.8

President Truman also addressed the succession issue.  At the time of President Roosevelt’s death, the order of succession proceeded from the President and Vice President to the Cabinet in the following sequence: Secretary of State, Treasury Secretary, Secretary of War, Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, and finally to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. In 1886, Congress had created that plan in a Succession Act based on the theory that power should remain with the executive branch of the government.  President Truman felt otherwise, that the succession should prioritize persons elected by the people. Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the lineup after the President became Vice President, Speaker of the House, and President Pro Tempore of the Senate.9

Eventually, the federal government  maintained a “replica government”, to be rotated into secure locations in the event of a national emergency.10 It’s unclear whether this policy is maintained in full or in part.

Since World War II, the threat of expansionist USSR policies and the eventuality of nuclear warfare led to deepening secrecy in the U.S. government.  The United States needed a strategic capability to deter the Soviets and their allies from waging aggressive war, and America undertook innumerable measures to do so.  Strategic bombers, nuclear devices, chemical and biological agents were all created, and officials presumed the Soviets were doing the same thing. Nuclear warheads delivered by intercontinental ballistic missiles underlined the most unthinkable contingencies.

Because of these exigencies, continuity of government plans are among the most guarded information in the U.S. government.  Information is distributed only on a need-to-know basis.  Members of Congress who are on the correct oversight committees are sometimes denied the most sensitive specifics in the plans. While some of the information has entered the public domain through the Freedom of Information Act, most of the government’s COG plans have remained deeply secret. 

 During the 1930s, Americans found themselves in a  deep economic depression with at least twenty-percent of the working population unemployed. Franklin Roosevelt placed the country under a national emergency, which gave him extraordinary powers to find solutions to the country’s myriad problems. The Emergency was contentious in some quarters, but it became an important precedent and served to enable the expansion of presidential powers over the coming decades.

As both the United States and Soviet Union progressed in their capabilities to wage nuclear war, the Eisenhower administration prepared extensive civil defense and continuity of government plans.  Russia exploded its first hydrogen bomb in 1953, and an office of Civil Defense was created under President Eisenhower’s auspices. “Operation Alert” exercises were planned and  conducted during the years of 1954 to 1961,  which tested the government’s ability to evacuate government offices and personnel.11 The intentions were the removal to varied locations in a geographical “arc” surrounding the Washington D.C. area. “Mount Weather”, one of the government’s most important continuity facilities, began construction in 1954.12

There have been instances where groups have been formed that skirt the idea of an MJ-12.

In 1958, President Eisenhower sent out letters to ten prominent businessmen and civilian officials to serve as a “shadow government” in the event that the top echelon of government leaders were killed in a nuclear war (“The Eisenhower Ten”).13 Another example is a three man group organized in 1962 under the Kennedy administration to study emergency plans and continuity of government.14

The 911 Detour

The general atmosphere of national security took an abrupt turn after the  September 11, 2001 attacks when Continuity of Government thinking morphed into the Homeland Security bureaucracy. U.S. policy makers  became overzealous. Flagrant and blatant growth in intelligence gathering, covert operations, secrecy and compartmentation became the rule.  The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq extended the responsibilities of the military branches and intelligence agencies, while the Executive Branch greatly expanded security programs with private sector contractors. 

 After 911, the national security complex erupted in size and complexity, while the employment of third party contractors proliferated. According to William Arkin and Dana Priest in Top Secret America – The Rise of the New American Security State, there were over 1,900 companies working on top secret contracts in mid-2010.15

Priest and Arkin identified “1,074 federal government organizations and nearly two thousand private companies involved with programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence in at least 17,000 locations across the United States-all of them working at the top secret classification level.”16

Of course, this was the government’s attempt to shut down the al-Qaeda organization. The fear of suitcase-sized nukes was overwhelming after 911 and it only added to the general hysteria. If al-Qaeda had the power to topple the World Trade Center, what else would they stoop to?  

The National Security Council and the military/intelligence communities have always worked under secret classifications, and compartmented information is not new. The Patriot Act and the consequent growth in post-911 resources created a paroxysm of information compartmentation. To quote Priest and Arkin again, the United States government’s reaction to 911 resulted in “more secret projects, more secret organizations, more secret authorities, more secret decision making, more watchlists and more databases….”.  

The National Security State had mutated into The Surveillance State. 

Going Underground 

The peril of intercontinental missiles quickened the impulse on both sides of the Iron Curtain to build facilities underground. Sites that could withstand a direct hit from an atomic weapon were crucial.

 What if the Soviets’ managed a decapitating strike on Washington? Logic impelled planners to protect high officials in the government by constructing secret locations for them in the event of hostilities. These needed to be situated in hardened places.  Supplies and communications would have to be provided for extended periods. 

During World War II, Germany was subjected to intense aerial bombing by the American and British air forces. The Allies targeted industrial plants and general infrastructure, and employed terror bombing in cities like Bremen and Hamburg. Those bombings materially degraded Germany’s industrial efforts. But under the leadership of Albert Speer, German production shifted to sheltered sites underground and within mountain tunnels.

After the war, the advantages of underground production were not lost on the Allies. America and Britain not only recognized German capabilities, but captured as many German scientists, engineers and technicians as they could, (known in the U.S. as Operation Paperclip).

Before World War II, the United States, protected  by two oceans, didn’t find it necessary to conceal or protect government sites by placing them beneath the ground or inside mountains. After seeing what the Germans had done however, the Americans began to consider the advantages of building underground, and a military report to the Army Navy Munitions Board in August 1946 made recommendations. It cited several advantages, including protection, economy, worker morale, and the wide availability of sites. 

The first specific ideas concerned the construction of an underground airplane factory, recommended by the Industrial Planning Section, Wright Patterson Air Force Base in 1948. A summary report titled A Recommended Program for the Underground Manufacture of Aircraft, (Initial Phase), proposed that a pilot plant be planned and constructed.17 

That was only the beginning.

Richard Sauder clearly documents the plans, proposals and patents filed over decades to construct underground and underwater facilities. In Underground Bases and Tunnels – What is the government trying to hide?; Underwater and Underground Bases, and Hidden In Plain Sight – Beyond the X-Files, Sauder demonstrates how the technology (and the intent) exists to construct facilities deep beneath the Earth’s surface  and even under the ocean floor. He researched government patents, engineering reports, project proposals, and  Army Corps of Engineers studies, as well as tunneling and boring machine technology.18

 It isn’t surprising the government could achieve wonders in underground construction, when we consider publicly known projects like subways underneath rivers and bays (New York and San Francisco), and the “Chunnel” connecting Britain and France underneath the English Channel. Undersea construction isn’t out of the ordinary, given offshore drilling capabilities.

There are several underground facilities directly connected with continuity of government projects, such as Raven Rock; Mt. Weather; the Greenbrier Resort and NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain. Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska housed the Strategic Air Command (now the U.S. Strategic Command); Mount Pony in Culpeper, Virginia protected Federal Reserve assets. Presidential complexes such as the White House and Camp David enclose extensive below ground tunnels and rooms. A myriad of hidden sections under or next to military bases remain, namely the China Lake Naval Weapons Center in California; Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque New Mexico; Medina Annex on Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, as well as the the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland. These are locations that are publicly known, but there are likely others we don’t know about.

UFO Paranoia

Rumors swept the UFO community during the 1990s: “There are secret underground bases inhabited by aliens! ” 

Notions of  underground alien bases started with the Travis Walton controversy in 1975. Walton was a logger in northeast Arizona when he and his friends maintained that he was captured by a UFO. After being abducted for an undetermined  amount of time, he told a story of awakening and encountering human looking “aliens” and a huge underground hangar.  The Walton narrative circulated among the UFO crowd for years.

Underground base tales quickened during the so-called Paul Bennewitz affair in the 1980s.  Paul Bennewitz was an Albuquerque scientist and businessman who believed that space aliens were inhabiting Archuleta Mesa near the town of Dulce in northwest New Mexico. He was under surveillance by at least one government group and perhaps others.

The Bennewitz case was connected with the Myrna Hansen story.  Hansen was a woman from Oklahoma who declared she was abducted by aliens near Cimarron, New Mexico. She was interviewed by Paul Bennewitz and hypnotically regressed by University of Wyoming professor Leo Sprinkle. Her tale was particularly lurid, recounting aliens conducting hideous experiments with humans and hybrid animals. The presumed location? “Dulce Base” in the Archuleta Mesa.

Bennewitz went on to write “Project Beta”, a tome that described how aliens were invading Earth’s domain.19

These rumors swirled among the UFO groups during the 1980s when extensive underground construction was likely taking place by U.S. government agencies, presumably for national security purposes.  The rumors were aggravated by the emergence of the MJ-12 documents in 1987, and by William Cooper, an anti-government advocate, popular in fringe circles.20

Sauder speculates that some of these locales could house super secret UFO related activities, but he falls short of making such claims. Since the technological and engineering skills exist to place cavities as much as a mile or more underground, or even undersea, we cannot completely discount such ideas. At the very least, continuity of government projects could plausibly employ engineering and construction techniques that can achieve utter secrecy deep beneath the earth’s surface.

A Breakaway Civilization?

There have been persistent allegations in the United States of an “invisible government”, a “shadow government”, and a  “deep state”. Some of these notions derive from the fact that the CIA, NSA, NRO and other alphabet units operate in secret. These government departments are funded covertly, i.e, by conveying monies from other agencies through classified internal transfers.  So much money is affected that issues have arisen about waste, duplication, and fraud….as well as rumors regarding UFO programs. The National Security State is so massive, that billions, even trillions of dollars have gone missing and unaccounted for. Catherine Austin Fitts and Mark Skidmore carefully reviewed government records that point to either weak or non-existent internal controls, and massive fraud inside the bureaucracies.21  This kind of thinking encourages speculation about classified UFO related programs and secret sites.

In an Internet article Richard Dolan pointed out that “MJ-12” (or something like it) was so secret that no one without a need to know was aware of its existence. Dolan contends that the Control Group likely became a breakaway outfit, a parallel, covert association. Eventually they composed a large (if not vast) infrastructure of secret sections within military bases and nuclear research facilities. The personnel attendant on these alleged super-secret projects are enclosed within a classified bubble – they can never discuss their activities outside of the workplace. Their work is not accomplished at one location, but rather through a far flung  assemblage of venues both governmental and corporate across the United States and possibly in foreign countries.22

It is probable the U.S. government has numerous land based and undersea installations that are hidden from the public. This circumstance inclines us to consider the concept of a “Breakaway Civilization”, as presented by Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel.  A “Breakaway Civilization” comprises cleared employees and participants whose work remains forever secret and concealed (presumably UFO related). Dolan and Zabel’s introduction of the breakaway civilization theory is speculation and there is no direct evidence for it. But such conjecture arises out of the possible recovery of an alien craft and bodies from the Roswell event of 1947, and the logical secrecy surrounding the event. Segments of the public want the truth about Roswell, but the effort, if it exists, is buried under special access programs, security oaths, compartmented job responsibilities and classified information.23

To give us an idea of its scope, consider that the Defense Department provides a list of Special Access Programs (“SAPs”) to appropriate Congressional committees each year, with the list exceeding 300 pages of only the SAP project names. The list does not include the names of “waived” and “unacknowledged” special access programs, nor does it provide names of SAPs connected with non-DOD agencies.24

Is the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) participating in UFO secrecy?25 The JSOC is a unit within the United States military. Known primarily for its counterterrorism efforts, the JSOC has an “unacknowledged” status, “meaning its true purpose and everything it does is classified, and therefore, as far as the public is concerned it does not exist”.26  JSOC Units intentionally change their names often, which keeps the public and presumably enemy combatants confused about its activities. Members within the JSOC are highly trained and motivated special forces, and they fit the profile for a breakaway component. They officially don’t exist, operate in secret, and address the most highly sensitive tasks within the National Security State.

COG Plans and Public Paranoia

Continuity of government programs can affect UFO community thinking due to “leaks” that seep into the public awareness. In the 1990’s there was a degree of paranoia both in the UFO public and in society at large because of circulating urban legends. There was chatter.

Fears of mass detentions go way back in time. The fear and suspicion of espionage and sabotage led the government to intern Japanese Americans during the Second World War, and since the internees were American citizens, the policy was both controversial and unjust. Postwar leaks of atomic secrets to the Soviet Union by American spies influenced the FBI and the State Department to look for Soviet agents government wide. Lists of “undesirables” were created. The Internal Security Act passed in 1950 included the Emergency Detention Act, which gave rise to an Emergency Detention Program.27

 The most sensitive and controversial issue has been extraordinary powers within the executive branch.28 During the decade of the ’60s, the Watts and Detroit riots, the Vietnam protests, the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground added a new layer of worries for government planners. Those developments led to direct Army and Air Force responses to domestic disturbances, known as Operation Garden Plot (Department of Defense Civil Disturbance Plan 55-2).29 A Presidential Emergency Action Document (PEAD) A1-8 enabled authorities to suspend habeas corpus and search and seize property at will.30

Fear of  “FEMA Camps” and mass roundups of dissidents during the ’90s influenced militia minded individuals. “They’re going to take away our guns!” became a common refrain.  Black Helicopter mythology, often associated with cattle mutilations (and by inference, UFOs), took on a life of its own. The Bill Cooper shortwave broadcasts (mentioned above), contributed greatly to this. Although a lot of the paranoia was rooted in imagination and fantasy, there was an element of truth based on press reports of deep government planning in the 1980s.

Some of the apprehension in the 1990s’ fringe groups started with rumors surrounding the work of Louis (“General”) Giuffrida, who was appointed by Reagan to be FEMA director in 1981.  Oliver North was serving on the staff of the National Security Council at the time and worked with Giuffrida on a plan that, in the event of civil unrest, would enable the President to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution. Reagan and Giuffrida’s extreme views on civil discontent had their origins in Reagan’s experience as California Governor, when widespread protests and social problems developed during the Vietnam War and from the hippie phenomenon in the 1960s.31

The paranoia within the “patriot” and militia groups did have some basis in reality though. Magazine articles by the Miami Herald (1982), Penthouse Magazine (1985) and U.S. News and World Report (1989) exposed the Guiffrida/North shenanigans. (The plans were later terminated).32 Those articles helped to influence notions of gun confiscations, mass arrests and the herding of undesirables into FEMA camps. These beliefs have a persistent presence in American folklore and mythology and circulate still today. In some quarters, rumors of these plans created a witch’s brew of civilian alarm and mistrust of the government.

Conclusion

The original set of MJ-12 documents (the Eisenhower Briefing Document, the Truman Forrestal Memo and the Cutler Twining memorandum) appeared in the 1980s. Since then, John Alexander’s speculation about Majestic Twelve has been the only assertion since Stanton Friedman’s about the nature of the MJ-12 committee. In this paper, we carefully reviewed the individuals named in the Eisenhower briefing and demonstrated how most of them did not fit into a continuity of government program. Assuming it ever existed, the Majestic Twelve group may have studied the feasibility of a high altitude or nuclear powered aircraft under strict secrecy.

That government COG facilities have (or had) gone underground has been proven by media reports, Freedom of Information Act requests and official government disclosures. Richard Sauder in his three books, documented the government’s interest in the construction of  deep underground facilities in both land and perhaps underneath the sea floor (see footnote 18). The scientific and engineering know-how was there.

The rumors and stories that have swept the UFO scene from time to time, combined with the known engineering skills documented by Richard Sauder leaves the researcher to question what hidden facilities the government truly has, and for what purposes.

Some elements in the political class had extreme agendas to corral certain groups deemed troublesome or dangerous. That the highest levels of the U.S. government have kept lists of problem citizens has been well documented. The existence of these policies had seeped into the public consciousness over time, creating distrust of government. Much of the militia, survivalist and gun advocate agendas have been influenced by these policies.

It is the opinion of this author that an MJ-12 type group could have been formed to study continuity of government, probably under a different list of names than those in the Eisenhower Briefing Document. A shadowy panel could have met in maximum secrecy as Colonel Alexander hinted in his book. 

Maybe an MJ-12 group existed after all….

Notes

1. Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies. (2022, June 3-5). UFOs UAP Enigmas and Complexities [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SIvlrWgmAc (timestamp 1:11:46); See also Hogan, M. (1998). A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the origins of the national security state 1945-1954. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK. p. 234…In 1944 Vannevar Bush proposed a committee to oversee “the control of atomic energy” composed “of two army officers, two naval officers, and eight private citizens”. 

2. Alexander, J. (2011). UFOs – myths, conspiracies, and realities. St. Martin’s Press. New York, NY. Chapter 7, “Majestic Twelve”.

3. Wood, R. The Majestic Documents. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://majesticdocuments.com/pdf/eisenhower_briefing.pdf

4. Several biographies were taken from American National Biography (including Berkner, Bronk, Bush, Forrestal, Gray, Hillenkoetter, Menzel, Souers, Twining and Hunsaker) found in the National Archives reference section. Other biographical information is taken from Wikipedia, as well as Zachary, G. (1997). Endless Frontier – Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century. The Free Press. New York, NY. and Friedman, S. (1996). Top Secret/Majic. Marlowe & Company. NY, NY. Chapters 2 & 3.

5. Wikipedia. Aircraft Nuclear propulsion. (2022).Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion

6. Jacobsen, A. (2011). Area 51 – An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base. Little, Brown and Company. New York, NY. pp. 29-31 & pp. 47-49

7. Tuohy, B. (2013). Disaster Government: National Emergencies, Continuity of Government & You. Mofo Press LLC. Kenosha, WI. p. 64.  For Presidential Executive Order 10346, see Woolley, J. and Peters, G. – UC Santa Barbara (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-10346-preparation-federal-agencies-civil-defense-emergency-plans

8. Graff, G. (2017). Raven Rock – The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan To Save Itself – While The Rest Of Us Die. Simon & Schuster. New York, NY. pp.50-52

9. Tuohy, pp. 331-332

10 Graff, pp. xix, 122, 230, 367, 372, 394 and 490; Tuohy, pp. 342-351

11. Tuohy,  pp. 266-272

12.Tuohy, p. 320

13. Tuohy, pp. 344-348

14. Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. National Security Files; John f. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives of the United States: Folder Title: National Security Action Memoranda [NSAM]: NSAM 127, Emergency Planning for Continuity of Government, June 1962; Date of Materials: 1962: 14 February-22 June; Folder Description: This file contains a report titled, “On a Re-examination of Federal Policy with Respect to Emergency Plans and Continuity of Government in the Event of Nuclear Attack on the United States,” to President John F. Kennedy from the Emergency Planning Committee as requested in National Security Action Memoranda number 127 (NSAM 127) titled, “Emergency Planning for Continuity of Government. ”;  Retrieved from https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKNSF/333/JFKNSF-333-021?image_identifier=JFKNSF-333-021-p0010

15. Priest, D and Arkin, W. (2011). Top Secret America – The Rise of the New American Security State. Little, Brown and Co. New York, NY. p. 176.  

16. Priest and Arkin, p. 86

17. Photos of these documents are in Tom Whitmore’s files, courtesy of the Robert S. Wood private research collection.

18. (1) Sauder, R. (1995). Underground Bases and Tunnels: What Is the Government Trying To Hide? Dracon Press. Abingdon, VA; (2) Sauder, R. (2001,2014). Underwater and Underground Bases. Adventures Unlimited Press. Kempton, Illinois; (3) Sauder, R. (2010). Hidden in Plain Sight: Beyond the X-Files. Keyhole Publishing Co. Rochester, NY.  In Sauder’s three books, 109 references are listed (articles, patents, reports and proposals), as well as 197 tunneling projects in 15 western states.

19. Bishop, G. (2005). Project Beta – The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth. Simon and Schuster. New York, NY. pp. 233-259. 

20. See Jacobson, M. (2018). Pale Horse Rider – William Cooper, The Rise of Conspiracy, and the Fall of Trust In America. Blue Rider Press. New York, NY. (Kindle Edition); and Cooper, W. (1991). Behold A Pale Horse. Light Technology Publishing. Flagstaff, AZ. 

21. Skidmore, M. and Fitts, C. (2002). Summary Report on Unsupported Journal Voucher Adjustments in the Financial Statements of the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Retrieved from https://missingmoney.solari.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Unsupported_Adjustments_Report_Final_3.pdf and Fitts, C. (2002). What’s Up With The Black Budget? The $64 Question. https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_blackbudget03.htm See also, Weiner, T. (1990). Blank Check – The Pentagon’s Black Budget. Warner Books. New York, NY. and Gellman, B. and Schmidt, S. (2002). Shadow Government Is At Work In Secret, By Barton Gellman and Susan Schmidt, The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/09/AR2006060900891.html

22. Dolan, R. (2020). A Breakaway Civilization: What It Is, & What It Means For Us.The New Agora. Retrieved from https://newagora.ca/richard-dolan-a-breakaway-civilization-what-it-is-what-it-means-for-us/ 

23. Dolan, R. (2016). The Secret Space Program and Breakaway Civilization, (Richard Dolan Lecture Series Book 1). Richard Dolan Press, http://richarddolanpress.com and Dolan, R. and Zabel, B. (2012). A.D. After Disclosure: When the Government Finally Reveals the Truth About Alien Contact. Career Press. Pompton Plains, NJ. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/adafterdisclosur0000dola/mode/2up?q=breakaway

24. Priest and Arkin, pp. 25-26

25. Earth Files. (2022, June 8). Does the U.S. Space Force Have Secret Vehicles Reaching Other Stars? (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-Z8JXKMNfE  Timestamp 16:20. Linda Howe relates a number of outlandish claims and hints that the Joint Special Operations Command is deeply involved.

26. Priest and Arkin, p. 222

27. Tuohy, pp. 204-205

28. Graff, p. 154; Tuohy, pp. 50, 51

29. Tuohy, p.194

30. Tuohy, pp. 203-204

31. Tuohy, pp. 144-147.  See also Giuffrida’s Student Thesis from the Military Police Corps: Guiffrida, L. (1970). National Survival – Racial Imperative.  US Army War College . Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/pdfy-h7zSh86fNBKrtRJU/mode/2up    

32. Chardy, A. (2006). Flashback: July 5, 1987 – Reagan Aides and the Secret Government. Herald Washington Bureau. Retrieved from https://bellaciao.org/en/Flashback-July-5-1987-REAGAN-AIDES-AND-THE-SECRET-GOVERNMENT  and  Roberts, P. (2004). Reputation and Federal Emergency Preparedness Agencies, 1948-2013. 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 2-5, 2004. pp. 11-13. Retrieved from https://training.fema.gov/hiedu/downloads/robertspfema%208%2020%2004%20apsa.pdf

APPENDIX I – KNOWN CONTINUITY OF GOVERNMENT FACILITIES

Sources:

1 Disaster Government (Tuohy)

2 Underground Bases and Tunnels (Sauder)

3 Raven Rock (Graff)

4 Hidden In Plain Sight (Sauder)

5 Underwater & Underground Bases (Sauder)

SOURCEFACILITY
2,3Mt. Weather
2Greenbrier Resort
3,2Raven Rock
3,2,5Cheyenne Mountain/NORAD
3Deep Underground Support Center (DUSC)
3,2,5Federal Reserve
3Mount Pony
3Mount Quirauk
3National Military Command Center
3Offutt AFB – Alternate Command Post
3White House Bomb Shelter
3Looking Glass
3World Wide Military Command and Control System (WWMCCS)
2,4China Lake Naval Weapons Center
2 Federal Regional Centers
2Fort Ritchie 
2Iron Mountain
2,5Kirtland Munitions Storage Complex (“Manzano Mountains”)
2Site R
4Medina Annex
4Camp Bullis
4Fort Hood
4White House
3,4Deep Underground Command Center (DUCC)
4Denver Federal Center
3,4,5Camp David
4Naval Observatory
5Chunnel
5Dulce NM
5Invisible Govt.
5Laytonsville MD
5Little Creek VA
5United States Army Warrenton Training Center; Warrenton, in northern Virginia.
5NSA (operating an underground facility under a U.S. Navy facade near Sugar Grove, West Virginia),

Appendix II – The “Eisenhower Ten”

Source: Tuohy, B. (2013). Disaster Government: National Emergencies, Continuity of Government & You. Mofo Press LLC. Kenosha, WI. pp. 345-346. 

As of 1958:

John Edgar Warren, Senior Vice-President of the First National City Bank of New York – Head of the Emergency Energy and Minerals Agency
Frank Stanton, President of CBS – Head of the Emergency Communications Agency
Frank Pace, Jr., President of General Dynamics Corporation – Head of the Emergency Transportation Agency (Pace resigned this post in 1959)
Dr. George Pierce Baker, Faculty Member of the Harvard Graduate School of Business – Head of the Emergency Transportation Agency (Pace’s replacement)
Aksel Nielsen, President of Title Guaranty Company of Denver, CO – Head of the Emergency Housing Agency
James P. Mitchell, Eisenhower’s Secretary of Labor – Head of the Emergency Manpower Agency
William McChesney Martin, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System – Head of Emergency Stabilization Agency
Theodore F. Koop, Vice-President of CBS – Head of the Emergency Censorship Agency
Harold Boeschenstein, President of Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation – Head of Emergency Production Agency
Ezra Taft Benson, Eisenhower’s Secretary of Agriculture – Head of Emergency Food Agency

Tom Whitmore would like to thank David Perkins and John Steiger for their friendship, encouragement and editorial assistance.

Copyright 2023 Thomas M. Whitmore. All rights reserved.