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This writer recently had the opportunity to assist Expanding Frontiers Research Executive Director Erica Lukes with an interview of writer, researcher and former International Director of the Mutual UFO Network, James Carrion. The primary focus of the discussion was James's extensive research into the likelihood flying saucer stories were planted in 1947 newspaper articles as part of a U.S. led deception operation for the purpose of breaking the Soviet diplomatic code. He recently authored a 40-page paper on the topic, Flying Saucers: An Opening Salvo of the Cold War? , and submitted it to the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence for consideration and review. The Oct. 25 interview is posted on YouTube, where the video description includes timestamps of discussion topics. James's research was explored at length, along with the state of UFO research; human deception as the common thread running through the UFO topic; MUFON, Robert Bigelow and the AAWSAP (Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program); Skinwalker Ranch as a myth-making machine, and much more. View the discussion: During the interview, James described a slides presentation he created and would be publishing on video. His referenced video, now available on YouTube : Visit James Carrion's blog to access his two nonfiction books available for free download. Anachronism and The Roswell Deception describe his research into the 1946-47 years of the Cold War and the manipulation of circumstances that became enmeshed with the UFO topic. James Carrion is an independent researcher. He earned an M.A. in International Studies and a B.A. in Russian Language from Florida State University. As an enlisted member of the U.S. Army, he served as a Russian Linguist and Intelligence Analyst from 1983-1989.

The unpermitted application of a pesticide on June 19 by Herriman City likely resulted in a June 24 fish kill event at Cove Pond, according to a Sep. 18 warning letter issued by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Herriman City maintains and stocks the pond used by local residents for recreational fishing. At least 500 fish were estimated to have been killed in the June 24 event. The letter: Expanding Frontiers Research obtained a copy of the warning letter as the result of a public records request submitted to the DEQ. The records released include an image of the label of the product that was used, Teton, an aquatic algaecide and herbicide containing the active ingredient endothall. Records obtained also include reports and analysis, dozens of digital images, and agency emails indicating Cove Pond was stocked with some 120 large catfish between the time of the chemical application and just prior to the fish kill event. Residents were warned not to fish the pond or eat any recently caught fish. EFR reached out for comment to the recipient of the DEQ warning letter, Anthony Teuscher, Deputy Director of Parks and Events for Herriman City. The following statement was subsequently provided in an Oct. 8 email received from Communications Manager and Public Information Officer Jonathan LaFollette: Herriman City is committed to the responsible management of all its facilities, including the Cove Pond. The incident this summer involved the application of a pesticide that inadvertently impacted the pond's fish population. We acknowledge the state's letter regarding the application and have taken immediate steps to ensure that all future facility treatments comply with necessary state permitting processes. We appreciate the partnership and guidance from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and other state agencies as we continually work to enhance our practices. Our goal remains to maintain a safe and healthy environment for both residents and local wildlife. A request was submitted to DEQ after responsive records were first received from the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR). Records initially obtained from DWR include images of the fish kill event, personnel messages exchanged, and talking points provided to the press. The talking points referenced an investigation undertaken by DEQ, resulting in EFR submitting a request and subsequently obtaining the Sep. 18 warning letter issued to Herriman City. DEQ noted in its response to EFR that the warning letter had not yet been sent at the time the EFR request was submitted. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment Dr. Brian Moench is the President of the Board of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. He says commonly used chemicals – including many approved by the Environmental Protection Agency – are often still toxic and harmful beyond the target use. Moreover, those who apply the chemicals often lack adequate education and training. “A couple of months ago,” Dr. Moench told EFR in an Oct. 17 email, “Salt Lake City had a tragic event where about 200 trees along North Temple died because 'the wrong herbicide' was sprayed around the base of the trees by someone who was, nonetheless, a 'certified sprayer.' It will be two years before the contaminated soil can be expected to support replanting. And in June, Cove Pond in Herriman was sprayed with an 'aquatic herbicide' intended to kill algae, that ended up killing hundreds of fish in the pond. “These two events are examples of how pesticides (herbicides and insecticides) are indeed poisons that affect the broader biological world, inevitably causing harm far beyond the target organisms.” The idea that widely distributing biological poisons would leave beneficial plants, animals, and humans unharmed was always wishful thinking, Moench contends. It never made scientific sense, and a growing body of research is confirming how the danger of pesticides is likely exponentially greater than ever before. “A second dimension of concern emerged in the 1990s with research that showed many pesticides were also endocrine disruptors, i.e. they mimicked or antagonized critical human hormones at extremely low dose exposure, adding an entirely new level of scientific evidence of their harm to human health. Endocrine disruptors (EDCs) have been identified as causing a wide spectrum of harm, especially at the earliest, most critical stages of human development; in utero, infancy, and childhood. Because of this research, in 1996, Congress mandated EPA test all pesticides for endocrine disruption potential. In 2024, 28 years later, that still has not happened and EPA’s regulatory process largely ignores the issue. Independent researchers meanwhile have strengthened the evidence of harm from endocrine disruptors.” But now a third dimension of public health harm from pesticides has emerged in the last few years, Moench continued, and it almost certainly dwarfs the previous two. “Scientists from throughout the world are finding PFAS ('forever chemicals') in many of the most commonly used pesticides. EPA has stated essentially there is no safe level of exposure to PFAS chemicals. The presence of PFAS in pesticides can be both intentional and inadvertent, i.e. intentionally incorporated into the active ingredient or the inactive ingredients used to enhance efficacy, or from unintentional leaching from storage containers. “The now well recognized serious health consequences of forever chemicals must be added to the equation of whether the risks outweigh the benefits of pesticide use. In short, those health consequences include developmental disorders, reproductive toxicity, increased risk for multiple cancers, immunosuppression, endocrine, liver, and metabolic disorders, and damage to the brain and nervous system.” The North Temple and Herriman events have overt, easily recognizable tragic outcomes in dead fish and dead trees, Moench concluded. “But inevitably, with almost any use of pesticides, humans are exposed as well. Herbicides that are formulated to be used in aquatic circumstances, but are still capable of killing fish, are almost certainly also capable of harm to humans. But all environmental toxins have the greatest potential to cause harm at very low concentrations when exposure occurs during critical developmental windows, i.e. to pregnant mothers and their babies in utero, infants, and children. Any environmental toxins that can cause developmental harm should be considered by society to represent an unacceptable hazard. That is all the more true given that many pesticides are now proven to be endocrine disruptors, and/or versions of 'forever chemicals.'” Dr. Brian Moench further discusses forever chemicals starting at the 39:25 mark of his June 14 appearance on Expanding Frontiers with Erica Lukes:

Longtime "friend of the program" and enthusiastic EFR flag-waver Vanessa Walilko joins host Erica Lukes on the Friday, October 11 edition of Expanding Frontiers. The show airs at 7pm ET on YouTube. Vanessa earned her Bachelor's in Science in Sociology from DePaul University while contributing to an assessment of the Cook County (Chicago) Domestic Violence Program. Her thesis, “Beyond 'Feminisms': Refocusing the Women's Movement Through the Lens of Liberation,” was published by Emerald Group Publishing. Vanessa is a valued volunteer with Expanding Frontiers Research, consulting in a variety of capacities. Her areas of expertise include public relations and implementing ethics policies and procedures. She also was interviewed by EFR as an informed advocate of domestic violence victims for two videos published on our YouTube channel.     A multi-talented artist, Vanessa has designed chainmail for Broadway productions and high-profile professional wrestlers. She maintained the successful and entertaining Personal Pans Podcast, as well as related online conferences that were popular and well-received.

Judge Terri K. Flynn-Peister called Jan Harzan's text messages "very serious and disturbing" during a Sep. 13 sentencing hearing that resulted in prison time issued to the former director of the Mutual UFO Network. "[T]here was a desire to engage in illegal sexual behavior with a 13-year-old girl," the judge observed while hearing arguments from attorneys in the case. A transcript of the sentencing hearing obtained by Expanding Frontiers Research indicates Harzan posted an ad on Craigslist, stating, "I'm missing my young friend." He then attempted to manipulate a person he believed to be a girl who was, in fact, an undercover (UC) law enforcement officer. Harzan was subsequently charged with contacting a minor with intent to commit lewd conduct and meeting a minor to commit the offense. He was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of parole upon release, as well as registering as a sex offender for life. Harzan has the right to submit an appeal within 60 days. Allegations of a lifetime of similar criminal conduct arose during the trial. Specifically, "two alleged instances from almost 50 years ago," but the judge clarified her sentencing decision did not rely on the information, given that the prosecutor chose not to brief the issue, or pursue it further at this time. "There were eight days of communications from June 25th, 2020, to July 3rd, 2020," Judge Flynn-Peister emphasized for the record. "Defendant initiated the post on Craigslist by writing, 'I'm missing my young friend.' Once Brianna -- the UC -- reached out, he then, unprompted, sent a photo to her, likely in the hopes that he would get one in return. There were lots of messages where he wanted a photo back and pressured her for that and even requested the photo after finding out she was 13 years old. "The evidence at trial showed that he was clearly trying to reach out to a young girl during this exchange and by posting the ad. During the texts, the defendant even planned where they could have sex: in his office; it was private; he had a blanket; it would be comfy. He initiated trying to set up a meeting – not the UC -- based on the evidence at trial. "The UC testified that there were ample opportunities for the defendant to stop the conversation with Brianna, but, instead, he kept going and setting up a meeting, even having a phone call and then actually showing up to the meeting. One text even says -- the defendant texted, 'I really, really want to have sex with you, but I don't want to go to jail.'" Harzan used online tools to lure what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, the judge observed, labeling his actions "predatory behavior" and "extremely manipulative." Judge Flynn-Peister added, "This is extremely disturbing behavior to this Court and that indicates a danger and the serious nature and circumstances of the offense, which warrant a prison sentence and not a probationary period." Numerous letters of support were submitted on behalf of Harzan. Judge Flynn-Peister qualified she read each of the letters several times and observed the majority of them express utter disbelief in the circumstances. Therefore, she added, the letters actually raise concerns. "They speak highly of his character," Judge Flynn-Peister acknowledged, "but I have to take them with a grain of salt because most of them are couched in either not believing what happened, not accepting the jury's verdict, or minimizing it." "What those statements and the sentiments tell me," she explained, "is that this defendant is a highly deceptive individual. He carried out the attempts to meet up with a 13-year-old girl for lewd acts, for eight days. Not one day, not two, not three, but eight days. No one knew or suspected during that time or during his lifetime. This shows me that he can hide part of himself from those closest to him, and it concerns me how I would supervise him on probation to ensure this wasn't happening." One of the letters was submitted by Kathleen Marden. She is identified on the MUFON website as a hypnosis practitioner, support group facilitator and member of the organization's Experiencer Resource Team. She works with people who consider themselves to be alien abductees. "I felt stunned when we learned that the police arrested Jan in a sting operation," Marden wrote, as cited by Judge Flynn-Peister in the sentencing transcript. "We feel certain it was a mistake or perhaps he was set up. I am well aware of the politics surrounding UFO researchers and upper-level staff at MUFON." "I am not sentencing an innocent man here," the judge asserted. "He was convicted of these two charges, and some of these letters seem to imply that, by calling them accusations, disagreeing with the jury's verdict, and the like. He sits here convicted of two extremely serious and disturbing felonies. The jury found it was not a mistake and that he had the intention to meet up with a child to commit lewd acts and actually met up with a child with the intent to engage in those acts. For all of those reasons, I'm not granting probation." ---------------------------------------------- EFR attempted unsuccessfully to obtain records responsive to this case from the Huntington Beach Police Department and the Orange County District Attorney. A sentencing transcript was subsequently requested from court reporter Vanessa Foster. During correspondence, Ms. Foster advised California Government Code Section 69954(d) prohibits the publishing or sharing of transcripts obtained with unauthorized third parties. EFR established it was Ms. Foster's position that EFR should not publish the transcript purchased. EFR chooses to honor her position as a term of the sale to which EFR agreed. The sentencing transcript referenced in this article and obtained from Vanessa Foster, as well as complete trial transcripts, may be ordered and purchased for Orange County Superior Court case number 20WF1838 at Court Reporter Services . Please consider joining our valuable financial supporters and help us fund our work at the Expanding Frontiers Research Patreon . You may also make a one-time contribution via the secure "donate" button located on our homepage . Your financial support contributes to our records requests, maintaining our website, producing our YouTube show and videos, and organizational operating expenses. Expanding Frontiers Research is a Utah nonprofit corporation, tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Thank you for your support.

"The point of fascism is dominance over other people and over even reality. The more blatant the unreality you can force others to live in, the better." - Author A.R. Moxon FBI files responsive to Gordon Gray  obtained by Expanding Frontiers Research through the Freedom of Information Act contain reports compiled during the course of security investigations spanning some 25 years of his intelligence career. The Yale-educated attorney held numerous positions of responsibility, advising and leading national security personnel at the highest levels of the mid-20th century United States intelligence apparatus. His positions included Secretary of the Army, directing the CIA Psychological Strategy Board, chairing the Clandestine Collection Committee, sitting on the board of the Economic Development Committee, heading the Office of Defense Mobilization, and numerous additional presidential appointments, including serving as Special Assistant to the President and as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. FBI files not surprisingly demonstrate Gordon Gray was involved with psychological warfare offices, propaganda groups, foundations now known to have acted as covert CIA funding conduits, and secret intelligence-gathering operations ostensibly created as international economic relief organizations. A follow-up FOIA request led to obtaining documentation of a 1982 investigation  conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office showing it identified many of those CIA initiatives to be of interest in its search for Nazi war criminals. Records also show that a Robert M. Hanes, then-president of Wachovia Bank and future Administrator for Germany of the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA), described himself as knowing Gordon Gray since childhood and admiring him very much when interviewed by the FBI in 1948 ( see p43 ). Notably, Gray's grandfather was a co-founder of Wachovia. The ECA was a precursor to U.S. Aid for International Development, or USAID, and has a recurring presence in records obtained and circumstances explored by EFR. As previously reported , a 1949 letter from then-DCI Roscoe Hillenkoetter to the Economic Cooperation Administration provides documentation of CIA use of the ECA as an asset to collect and furnish the Agency classified “economic intelligence information.” Soon after the date of Hillenkoetter's letter , the ECA contracted a Baltimore public relations firm, Counsel Services, to conduct work abroad. This took place as Counsel Services co-founder Leo McCormick became employed by the ECA as a project manager ( see p60 ). Counsel Services officers Mary Vaughan King, who was another co-founder, and Thomas O'Keefe, a State Department man with experience working overseas and designating personnel for foreign assignment, fascinatingly went on in 1956 to assist T. Townsend Brown with the incorporation of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena ( see p3 ). The organization became the largest UFO group ever formed, boasting some 14,000 paid subscribers at the height of its public relations success and assembling a governing board that remained populated with intelligence officers throughout its existence. The implications are intriguing and offer many directions for research, illuminating puzzle pieces about the people who inhabited the murky world of flying saucer tales, even if reliable information on the reported craft themselves remains forever elusive. Who Was Gordon Gray? FBI records indicate Gordon Gray was born in Baltimore in 1909 ( see p34 ). His father, Bowman Gray, was an R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company executive and major benefactor of a medical school that bears his name. Bowman was “on temporary business duty” in Baltimore with his wife when Gordon and his older brother were born. Gordon Gray's grandfather, who co-founded Wachovia Bank, was Alexander Gray. In 1912 Bowman Gray returned with his family to Winston-Salem, where Gordon would prove to be an outstanding student. Gray repeatedly led his classes in scholastic achievement all the way through college at the University of North Carolina. He graduated in 1930 and entered Yale Law School, where he again thrived. Gray passed the bar and practiced law in New York before returning to North Carolina in 1935, where he joined another law firm. In 1937 Gray became owner and publisher of the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel, as well as owner/operator of radio station WSJS. He soon “acquired an interest in” the Charlotte News and became a director of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, while continuing to participate in a number of educational, political and civic organizations. FBI investigations show Gray was widely considered to be a wealthy philanthropist and civic-minded public servant. Gordon Gray married Jane Boyden Craige, the daughter of an attorney, in 1938, and was elected to the North Carolina State Senate in 1939. He served on multiple education and financial committees. After serving a second term in the State Senate, Gray was inducted into the army as a private in 1942, where he reportedly achieved the highest score on an IQ test ever recorded at Fort Bragg. In 1943 he was trained as an intelligence officer, including education in counterintelligence in Chicago, where he was outranked by some 90 percent of his classmates yet graduated at the top of the class. He was promoted to first lieutenant, then to captain in 1944 and served overseas on a general's staff before being discharged in 1945. Gray began a third term in the North Carolina State Senate in 1947 and was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Army the same year. He served on multiple committees and was appointed Secretary of the Army in 1949. Several FBI security investigations were conducted on Gray. Various agencies would periodically request the Bureau either investigate him for clearance or advise of his activities for one security-related purpose or another. Sometimes the FBI would simply bring the requesting office up to speed on results from previous investigations, while other times the Bureau might more indirectly summarize the gist of the circumstances if it deemed it in poor judgment to disclose the FBI had, for instance, investigated Gray on behalf of the White House. New investigations were launched in select circumstances, depending on the sensitivity of the matters. In addition to such contacts as the president of Wachovia Bank who served as the Administrator for Germany of the Economic Cooperation Administration, the many interviewed by FBI included executives of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Like almost all of those queried, the executives spoke highly of Gray, whose family was influential with the company. Bureau records indicate Gordon's father, Bowman Gray, held the positions of president and chairman of the board ( see p44 ). Gray's brother, Bowman Jr., was vice president of R.J. Reynolds ( p34 ), and his uncle, James A. Gray, had his turn as both president and chairman of the board ( p48 ). A former R.J. Reynolds production plant was donated and became the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, now a part of Wake Forest University. Incidentally, in 1959 North Carolina hosted an international conference sponsored by the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, the China Medical Board of New York Inc., and the International Cooperation Administration (ICA), according to a June 8, 1959, article published in Gordon Gray's Winston-Salem Journal. The ICA operated from 1951-1961, absorbing the Economic Cooperation Administration and eventually becoming part of U.S. Aid for International Development. The Winston-Salem Journal reported "guest-faculty and consultants will include representatives from the International Cooperation Administration" at the conference. Back in 1950, Gray was elected president at the University of North Carolina. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York-based Committee for Economic Development, which apparently funded UNC “for carrying out its program.” From the FBI files ( see p30 ): Gray would go on to take at least two leaves of absence from UNC while serving appointments from United States presidents, including in 1950 as a special assistant when he conducted a study on “foreign economic aid.” A 1953 FBI memo would later state Gray's work “was paid from White House office funds.” ( see p49 ) In 1951, Gray served as the director of the “President's Psychological Strategy Board,” as the Bureau chose to call it, which might have been more aptly termed the CIA and DCI Walter B. Smith's psychological strategy board. Gen. Walter B. Smith Gen. Smith is a study in himself, which should not be particularly surprising, given his service as a Director of Central Intelligence. Taking the position in 1950 vacated by Hillenkoetter, Smith was credited with rerouting the chain of command for the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) across his desk and away from the State Department and the Department of Defense. The OPC acted as a covert arm of American intelligence agencies and was an absolute machine of intelligence collection and warfare. It was divided into three subdivisions: paramilitary operations, political and psychological warfare, and economic warfare (This line of research is explored in more detail, along with its potential relevance to NICAP, in this writer's book Wayward Sons: NICAP and the IC ). In 1949, the OPC had 302 personnel with a $4.7 million annual budget. By 1952, it ballooned under DCI Smith and OPC director Frank Wisner to $82 million, with 2,812 personnel and an additional 3,142 overseas contract personnel operating out of 47 foreign stations ( see p36 ). “To the United States and to OPC, the conduct of political and psychological warfare in peacetime was a new art,” a 1973 CIA Studies in Intelligence  stated about the 1948-1952 time frame. The above quoted CIA literature, released in 2006, addresses early Agency psychological warfare efforts to combat international organizations described as indoctrinating unwitting followers into Communist ideologies. Those CIA efforts involved what is described as OPC becoming active in sponsoring a number of “rival” organizations, including those described as cultural, veterans', women's, labor and more. To be crystal clear, the CIA reported its 1950s psychological warfare efforts included covertly sponsoring organizations to act in its interests. The CIA study further states OPC concentrated an effort within the trade union movement with the assistance of the Economic Cooperation Administration, referenced above, which was described as having funds available for the operation ( see pp11-12 ). The linked CIA study also references OPC organizing Radio Free Europe, National Committee for Free Europe, and other groups which will resurface towards the end of this article. DCI Smith was reported by the CIA itself as interested in how the UFO phenomenon could be used to improve psychological warfare efforts ( see p2 ). His principal involvement in a 1954 coup in Guatemala, code name PBSUCCESS, and that of psychological warfare specialist E. Howard Hunt, is documented by the National Archives . Smith and Hunt, along with OPC man Frank Wisner, are likewise on a State Department list  of 1952-1954 Guatemala personnel. Notably, PBSUCCESS is known among UFO researchers for a cable sent from CIA headquarters  in Florida to its station in Guatemala, directing personnel to consider fabricating a big human interest story, “like flying saucers,” to distract public attention from CIA involvement in manipulating the nation's political affairs: Hunt would later publish a book chronicling his infamous political shenanigans, both domestic and abroad. He wrote  he worked in Frank Wisner's Office of Policy Coordination on a psychological warfare team comprised primarily of Princeton men led by CIA officer Col. Joseph Bryan III. Col. Bryan went on to be a staple of the Board of Governors of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena after the group was incorporated in 1956 by former ECA contractor Counsel Services. Interestingly, previously mentioned Counsel Services officer Thomas O'Keefe's work with the State Department included time assigned to Guatemala, according to his résumé ( see p39 ). While the assertions of known propaganda experts such as Hunt should be allocated adequate due diligence, the men Hunt describes working with under Bryan in the OPC are confirmed former intelligence professionals and his description of that particular scenario of his career has a high likelihood of being reasonably accurate, all available circumstantial evidence considered. Gordon Gray was involved with a host of groups and committees (in addition to those already named) in the turbulent and controversial CIA of the 1950s. He chaired the Board of Overseas Training and Research under the Ford Foundation, an ostensibly charitable division of the motor company with which the Agency acknowledged  it collaborated, along with other existing institutions, to establish numerous “bogus” foundations to “hide” its funding of covert activities. The practice of using foundations, nonprofit organizations, and other corporate entities and institutions as a means to secretly fund and conduct operations is common knowledge among historians and those familiar with American intelligence agencies. The OPC was merged in 1952 with the Office of Special Operations, creating the Directorate of Plans and solidifying CIA Clandestine Services. Activities formerly conducted in the OPC were reported by the Agency to have maintained continuity and – in a description that could be considered both fascinating and disturbing – to “pick up the pace.” ( see p7 ) This escalation might be better envisioned if considered in the context of behavior modification and interrogation projects which began as Bluebird (initially greenlighted by Hillenkoetter, who went on to chair the NICAP board), were expanded and renamed Artichoke (under Gen. Smith), and evolved into the expansive MKULTRA in 1953 under the direction of DCI Allen Dulles. Gray's Continuing Career and IC Assets Gordon Gray's previously referenced financial study conducted for the president was the subject of a 1953 Department of Defense memo  authored by a CIA officer, Brig. Gen. John Magruder, who was a member of an advisory committee formed by the Psychological Strategy Board. The memo, sent to Frank Wisner and released by the CIA in 2003, advised against publication of Gray's report. The Board should give consideration, Magruder wrote, “to the advisability of recommending to the President that he make a statement in justification of the national psychological effort...” Gray's overt recommendations in the report involved creating a more prosperous and stable global economy through trade policies, coordination with allies, and support for developing nations. What Gray may have discreetly proposed and discussed, or how his colleagues may have desired to exploit his suggestions, might be different matters entirely. In January 1954, the Atomic Energy Commission requested a name check on 15 individuals, including Gray, “of whom three were to be chosen for a board to hear the Oppenheimer case.” One of those three was Gray ( see p72 ). Gray headed a three-man hearing board that in 1954 recommended famous 1945 Manhattan Project atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer be denied clearance to secret information as a security risk. Gray was soon appointed Assistant Defense Secretary for International Security Affairs ( see p85 ): The three-man board consisted of Gray, Ward Vinton Evans and Thomas A. Morgan. The latter apparently had a particularly favorable relationship with the FBI, including coordinating work for a potential double agent, or spy often used to collect intelligence while transmitting disinformation ( see pp74-75 ):   The significance of the era of intelligence gathering and counterintelligence operations - figuring out how adversaries were collecting intelligence and advantageously feeding them disinformation while they remained none the wiser - cannot be overemphasized. Entire spy rings were being investigated and successfully apprehended, FBI agents felt justified in abusing their power, and CIA officers were covertly dosing unwitting citizens and even one another with powerful drugs, all in the name of national security. There is simply an incredible amount of nuanced cultural significance found between the lines of the FOIA records of the time. Meanwhile, Gray, somewhat like Thomas A. Morgan, was described in FBI records as a "Special Service Contact" of the Charlotte Office, yet reportedly expressed confidence "his mail had been tampered with." He apparently then expressed suspicions FBI was responsible ( p77 ). Director Hoover noted and wrote by hand that he did not appreciate Gray "suspecting the FBI," jotted on the same 1954 memo which contained an addendum indicating an agent checked with the FBI office in DC to make sure Gray wasn't right ( p73 ): Hoover then informed Charlotte it “should be most circumspect” in future dealings with Gray ( p76 ). A mutually beneficial relationship seemed to continue, however, as Gray would later recommend Hoover brief the President's Cabinet on the Communist threat, as we shall see below. In the meantime, it was July 1956, and Gray was sworn in as Assistant Defense Secretary for International Security Affairs. This would include taking over as “boss of the Defense Department's multi-billion dollar foreign military aid program.” Gray told reporters he would be on full-time duty with the Pentagon while traveling and administering the global military aid program ( see p87 ). Coincidentally or otherwise, this is the same time, the summer of 1956, that T. Townsend Brown was down the street hanging around with a DC-area flying saucer club and Counsel Services filed for incorporation of NICAP. The latter happened in August, a month after Gray was officially sworn in. Interestingly, security investigations were simultaneously undertaken by the FBI at the request of the State Department on psychological warfare expert, NICAP organizer, and almost certain CIA asset, Nicholas de Rochefort . His political activities are explored at length in Wayward Sons. The implications to the NICAP story are striking. The connections from the CIA, its Office of Policy Coordination and interests in psychological warfare, to the Economic Cooperation Administration, its exploitation of financial aid programs and relationship with Counsel Services, to the activities and areas of expertise of Gordon Gray, Nicholas de Rochefort (and others) and the related security investigations conducted by the FBI, carry many points of interest. An intriguing FBI memo from a 1956 security investigation conducted on Nicholas de Rochefort during the very time he was associated with NICAP is shown below ( see p20 ). EFR continues to pursue further declassification of the memo, which indicates an informant provided the Bureau information pertaining to de Rochefort under the requested conditions it was furnished in strict confidence and would not be disseminated outside Hoover's office: An image of the Russian-born Frenchman, "Count" de Rochefort, speaking at the 1954 Freedom Day in New Hampshire and broadcast by Voice of America: Evidence of de Rochefort's involvement and work conducted with NICAP include a Board of Governors Progress Report from Dec. 1956 ( see p88 ) and a letter authored the same month: Below are official documents showing the CIA and Hillenkoetter's relationship with the Economic Cooperation Administration; Counsel Services co-founder Leo McCormick hired as an ECA project manager; and FBI investigation of McCormick for clearance, as summarized above and which included interviewing fellow firm co-founders Mary Vaughan King (FBI likely misspelled her name on this occasion) and L.G. Shreve: Newspaper clippings documenting related circumstances: NICAP records showing Mary Vaughan King and Thomas D. O'Keefe incorporated NICAP with T. Townsend Brown in August 1956 ( see p3 ): A screenshot from a contract simultaneously drawn up between Counsel Services and NICAP, stipulating NICAP consultants and regional directors may be retained and work under the supervision of Counsel Services senior officers, namely Thomas D. O'Keefe and Mary Vaughan King ( see p7 ): Below is an image from the résumé of Thomas D. O'Keefe, suggesting his former work assigning State Department personnel for foreign assignment, among other government responsibilities ( p39 ): The image below depicts a handwritten note stored among archived NICAP records, suggesting O'Keefe wrote promotional material for NICAP. The note is located in a pdf adjacent to a Jan. 1957 letter from T. Townsend Brown to a Washington attorney, addressing a Washington Post article about space law ( p22 ): Other records in the FBI files obtained on Gordon Gray include a 1958 FBI memo indicating Gray was responsible for recommending the President's Cabinet be briefed by Hoover on the Communist threat to internal security ( p90 ). The memo continued, “[Gray] said that the lack of vigorous protest against the attack on the FBI made by Cyrus Eaton was indicative of the degree to which the public had lost interest in subversive activities.” Cyrus Eaton was a Canadian American industrialist, investment banker and philanthropist. He was reportedly  critical of certain U.S. policies and particularly intelligence agency surveillance, publicly likening it to Hitler and describing the spy tactics as worse than the Gestapo. Gray's recommendation Hoover brief the Cabinet on Communist infiltration and subversion reflects what was in one instance described as Gray's “rabid” opposition to Communism. It is both intriguing and potentially concerning to consider how far Gray and his colleagues may have been able to persuade those in power to go, and the resources he may have been successful at convincing presidents and their cabinets to use, in a seeming effort to gain advantage in a Cold War waged with Russia. Additional FBI records obtained through a follow-up FOIA request show conflict arising in 1966 between the Bureau and the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which included Gray. FBI memos indicate the Bureau was concerned the Board might learn about certain activities the FBI preferred to remain undisclosed. “We have operations going that we certainly don't want all members of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board to know about,” an FBI memo stated ( see p7 ). It was also expressed that it “could only lead to trouble” for an FBI representative to get in a position where they were being jointly interrogated by members of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Gray served as President Dwight Eisenhower's National Security Advisor from 1958-1961, following his terms as Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He later died of cancer in 1982 at his home in Washington, D.C. Right-Wing Extremism A now declassified 1952 CIA calendar item  documents J. Edgar Hoover reportedly expressed significant interest in the subject of flying saucers. The CIA apparently informed Hoover the matter was discussed at a then-recent Intelligence Advisory Committee meeting. It was decided that personnel from the CIA Office of Intelligence should brief Hoover: This contradicts Hoover's public policy, denying any official FBI interest in UFOs, and may well have more reflected Hoover's concern about Communist subversion than Venusians in the Pentagon. It's not difficult to envision Hoover may have had any number of reasons for reportedly expressing interest in UFOs to CIA, and those reasons may have been much more about counterintelligence and/or interacting with CIA personnel for one purpose or another than concern about literal flying saucers. Please note the reference to the discussion of UFOs at the Intelligence Advisory Committee, as that group will come up again below. A comprehensive 1953 FBI Special Inquiry undertaken on Gordon Gray includes reference to his position as the North Carolina Chairman for the Crusade for Freedom ( see p48 ). The report notes activities of the “Crusade” included raising funds for Radio Free Europe and other propaganda outlets with confirmed and likely CIA influence, if not outright Agency management: An exploration of the FBI files and adjacent subject matter is incomplete without acknowledging the implied and at times not-so-subtle implications of fascist ideology. Specifically, the CIA and Office of Policy Coordination entitlement of conducting unethical behavior modification research under the guise of defensive studies while arguably cultivating fears of Communism (get them before they get us); Operation Paperclip and the embracing of Nazi scientists in CIA research and as inferred in the Economic Cooperation Administration presence in post-World War II Germany; and unrestrained surveillance and sowing of dissent conducted by the FBI as eventually revealed through public discovery of COINTELPRO, or Counterintelligence Program, are but a few examples of the many. The American intelligence officers steering the circumstances may have indeed been above reproach in their loyalty to the perceived cause, but the questions remain as to whether the cause was just or if the ends justified the means. Just because they were confident in what they were doing doesn't necessarily mean they should have been doing it (or that their true intentions were necessarily reflected in their overt and official statements). Moreover, these lines of entitlement and fascism may be found running through the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, as well. That's the case whether because of intelligence community involvement in NICAP, the general prevailing culture among military and intelligence officers who made up and influenced the organization, simply a matter of widely held belief systems among American white people of the times, or combinations thereof. For whatever combinations of reasons, NICAP reflected certain societal ills also found in the intelligence community and those ills persist in the UFO subculture. Maj. Donald Keyhoe, widely accepted as the face of NICAP, is reported to have subscribed to racist beliefs. This includes his reported opposition  to people of color volunteering with NICAP, including Lynn Cato, the girlfriend of writer and researcher John Keel. In the years before Keyhoe took the reins of NICAP in early 1957, he was the tour manager of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, a nationalist who opposed  U.S. intervention in World War II. The pilot likewise spoke out against the provision of military aid to the British. Lindbergh was the spokesperson for the isolationist America First Committee, now considered by historians and intelligence professionals to have represented extremist interests and have been, basically, made up of Nazis. After conducting a 13-year UFO public relations campaign and attack on the American intelligence community, Keyhoe was relieved of his responsibilities as NICAP director in proceedings led by the previously mentioned CIA psychological warfare expert and NICAP board member Col. Joseph Bryan III. Keyhoe had successfully lobbied for Congressional UFO hearings but his most lasting legacy may have been shifting his burden of proof to the federal government for his assertions of interplanetary visitors. Keyhoe pretty much taught the UFO subculture to argue it could prove aliens were frequently flying the skies if the CIA and Air Force would only release their proof aliens were frequently flying the skies. The logical fallacies inherent to the argument seemed to escape many, through sincere misunderstandings or otherwise, and that continues to be the case to this day. Following Keyhoe's removal as director in late 1969, more intelligence officers joined the NICAP board and appointed John L. “Jack” Acuff as president to manage some facade of an organization. NICAP was little more than a memory of its once active network of investigators and ongoing press releases when, in 1978, NICAP staffers and members were barraged by mail with Nazi propaganda. The material arrived bearing NICAP computer labels and membership codes and, in at least one instance, apparently was accompanied by a NICAP mailer. Concerned parties investigated, learning that Acuff sold the organization mailing list not once, but twice, to Ernst Zundel. He ran a Nazi group and publishing house, Samisdat, out of Canada. Zundel and Samisdat were using UFOs as a means to promote their doctrines ( see pp1-2 ). FBI records on Ernst Zundel obtained by EFR contain a 1965 description of him as a German artist residing in Montreal who “refers to negroes, Jews, and Communists, in one breath as the enemy of the White Race [ sic ].” It was further observed that Zundel “advocates concentration camps for these enemies.” Zundel was described as intellectual, persuasive and extremely dangerous, for reasons including, “If this man should contact gullible people who's values are completely twisted, he could become a real threat...” Records obtained by EFR  through a FOIA request and further declassified through successful appeal show how a 1982 search for Nazi war criminals conducted by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) led investigators to several of the CIA boards, divisions and projects discussed in this post. The GAO advised the FBI of the circumstances and provided the Bureau a list while requesting FBI share its records related to the projects named. Many, if not all, of the 35 operations and groups listed by GAO were funded by the CIA and/or had officers involved in significant capacities. The FOIA request first submitted to the FBI sought records responsive to the CIA Psychological Strategy Board. A 1982 GAO memo to the Bureau, Subject: GAO Inquiry Into Alleged Nazi War Criminals , was included in records identified as responsive because the Board was named in the memo and subsequent response to the GAO from the FBI. Additional operations and units cited by the GAO, in addition to the Psychological Strategy Board and spanning from the Hillenkoetter administration forward, included but were not limited to: Intelligence Advisory Committee, Intelligence Advisory Board, Operation Paperclip (of course), State Department's Policy Planning Staff, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, Crusade for Freedom, and Office of Policy Coordination - all significantly referenced above. From the 1982 GAO memo: Perhaps Gordon Gray and his colleagues fell out of favor as time passed them by and societal norms cycled. There are implications in this saga to current events, as well, particularly about ideologies often embraced by law enforcement, the intelligence community and military extremists. It might be argued the demographics don't seem to learn their lessons, or maybe a lot of them just don't know what happened in the past and their numbers become manipulated again from generation to generation. Maybe they think everything happening is new. They – the ones unaware of the past – might be the most vulnerable of us all to exploitation, and that leads us to what may be the most salient point to be made about all this: It's time to accept the past, absent confirmation bias and cherry-picking. It's time we accept where we've been and what it means; what it means about U.S. intelligence agencies, what it means about the United States as a nation, what it means about UFOs and many of those who investigate them, and what it means to each of us as individuals. It's time to stop ignoring the material that is available for the asking and it's time to read it and integrate it into our assessments of our pasts and the world we live in. Doing so is the most effective defense against those obstructing and spinning the past in order to exploit the rest of us in the present and future.

Critically acclaimed artist and curator of The Poe Museum, Chris Semtner, guests Friday, Sep. 20, on Expanding Frontiers with Erica Lukes. The show runs 7-9pm Eastern, live on YouTube. Chris has curated popular exhibits for museums and galleries across the country, including his Library of Virginia exhibit Poe: Man, Myth, or Monster , earning the praise of The New York Times. His latest exhibit, Mystery of Mysteries: Paintings by Chris Semtner , runs through October 26 at Visual Arts Studio in Richmond, VA. Exhibits created by Chris for The Poe Museum earned awards and honors from TIME Magazine and USA Today, among others. Using innovation to bring Poe to new audiences, he has collaborated on performances with a diverse variety of groups, including ballet, historians, and even cemeteries. Chris regularly speaks about a variety of unusual, obscure, and macabre subjects to groups of all ages around the country and as far away as Japan. His book, The Poe Shrine: Building the World’s Finest Edgar Allan Poe Collection , tells the strange but true stories behind The Poe Museum’s artifacts. Be sure to check out what promises to be a fascinating discussion!

Jan Harzan was sentenced Friday to serve time in state prison stemming from his conviction on charges he solicited sexual activity online from a law enforcement officer he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. He was reportedly arrested when he arrived at a prearranged spot to meet the child. According to a case summary obtained from Orange County Superior Court of California, Harzan was sentenced to two years State Prison for a felony count of contacting a minor with the intent to commit a lewd offense. He was also sentenced to 18 months in prison for the felony charge of meeting a minor to commit lewd conduct. It was not immediately clear if the sentences would run concurrently. From the case summary: Harzan is the former executive director of the Mutual UFO Network. He is a longtime staple of the organization, which removed him from his position after reports surfaced publicly of his arrest on the charges in 2020.

Edit: This show will be scheduled at a later date due to technical difficulties. Coming right on the heels of a fascinating discussion with Dr. Stephen Kent , a professor who amassed one of North America's largest collections on alternative religions and cults, Erica Lukes welcomes Steve Erickson for a special Thursday edition of Expanding Frontiers. The "Gunslinger for Peace," as the Salt Lake City resident has described himself , fought weapons research and development at Dugway Proving Ground and won. His lifelong activism spans from opposing the Vietnam War during his time as a student at Columbia University to founding the Citizens Education Project and protesting nuclear weapons and waste in Utah. The Steven G. Erickson Archive, documenting his many activist efforts, from advocating for "Downwinders" to lobbying for affordable housing, is maintained at the University of Utah. The show airs live Thursday, Sep. 12, 3:30pm Eastern. Join us live in chat or view what promises to be yet another fascinating discussion in its entirety afterward at the EFR YouTube channel .

Dr. Stephen Kent has been at the University of Alberta since 1986. He earned multiple degrees in religious studies and sociology, and received grants to study sects, cults, and new religions in Canada and the United States. As a result of Dr. Kent's award-winning research, he amassed one of North America's largest collections on alternative and sectarian religions. He is the author of the book From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War Era . Dr. Kent will discuss his work during a special Wednesday, Sep. 11, 3pm Eastern episode of Expanding Frontiers with Erica Lukes. The show airs live on YouTube and remains available for viewing afterward. Dr. Kent has studied and taught on a wide variety of religious organizations and practices, including controversial sects, cults and alternative religions, and the mental health issues related to sectarian leaders. Students under Dr. Kent's supervision have published on a wide range of topics, including evangelical youth and sexuality; Jim Jones's use of language; sects and family violence; Scientology's business management programs; terrorism; pseudo-science; the Children of God/The Family; and Heaven's Gate, among others.

The founder and Executive Director of The Cult Education Institute, Rick Alan Ross, will guest on a special episode of Expanding Frontiers with Erica Lukes. The show will air live on YouTube on Thursday, Sep. 5, 3pm Eastern . Mr. Ross is an internationally known expert regarding destructive cults and controversial groups. He is author of the book "Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out." Since 1982, Mr. Ross has been studying, researching and responding to the problems often posed by controversial authoritarian movements. Mr. Ross's commentary has been quoted within publications that include Time Magazine, The New York Times and The Washington Post. His appearances on national television have included a wide range of venues from news programs such as the "Today Show" and "Dateline" to popular interview shows such as "Oprah" and "Inside Edition." Mr. Ross has lectured at such prestigious institutions as the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, Baylor University, Wuhan University, China, and Assumption University, Thailand, among others. Join Expanding Frontiers live in chat on Thursday, Sep. 5, and keep track of our interviews and videos at our Youtube channel . Those so inclined may support our work via our homepage or Patreon . Thank you for your interest and support.

Utah HB29, recently signed into law by Gov. Spencer Cox, expanded upon previous legislation that allowed the challenging of “sensitive materials” in public schools. Some 13 books are now ordered to be taken off the shelves at every school library in Utah with more expected to follow. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ken Ivory (R-West Jordan), allows for removal of books from schools statewide if officials in at least three school districts decide the material violates the law. Florida leads the nation in the unflattering category of book bans, passing ambiguous legislation that allows school districts to make their own rulings. National free speech group PEN America asserts that well north of 3,000 books were banned nationally during the 2022-23 school year, up 33% from the previous year, and that some 40% of the documented instances happened in Florida school districts. Erica Lukes, host of Expanding Frontiers, welcomes activists Peter Bromberg and Tasslyn Magnusson, PhD, to discuss the dangers of banning books in Utah and across the nation. Join them for a special Friday, Aug. 23, 5pm EST, edition of Expanding Frontiers with Erica Lukes. Peter Bromberg is the former Executive Director of the Salt Lake City Public Library and holds multiple key positions with nonprofit groups promoting literacy, advancing human rights and opposing censorship, including EveryLibrary and Let Utah Read. He consults on issues concerning libraries, educators and related legislation. Tasslyn Magnusson, PhD , is a writer and independent research consultant who works with EveryLibrary and PEN America. She researches censorship attempts in K-12 libraries and supports PEN America’s work in creating resources to support authors whose work is targeted.

Records ultimately provided by the FBI in response to a FOIA request further establish that a search for Nazi sympathizers led to the CIA. The investigation, conducted in the 1980s by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), included providing a list of organizations and projects to the FBI and requesting the Bureau search its files for information on each of the listed references. A 1982 memo, Subject: GAO Inquiry Into Alleged Nazi War Criminals , advised the FBI of and sought info on such CIA projects as the now infamous Operation Paperclip and a lesser known Project Permanent. The latter was described as enacted in 1948 at the request of the Director of Central Intelligence, who was Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter at that point in time. Additional material was subsequently obtained by Expanding Frontiers Research after filing an appeal of records initially withheld. The further released material includes names of individuals who were of interest to the GAO along with identifying file numbers. Download the 8-page document here: Pages withheld and redactions applied in response to the original 2021 request were appealed with guidance from FOIA activist Attorney Beth Bourdon. Her Patreon is a recommended resource for those wishing to study the FOIA process and support the work her network accomplishes. The original FOIA request to the FBI sought records pertaining to the Psychological Strategy Board (PSB), a CIA panel which operated from 1948-1952. The 1982 General Accounting Office memo to the Bureau was identified as responsive to the request because the PSB was specifically named on the list provided to the FBI. Part of the list reflecting U.S. projects and offices of concern to the GAO: Also making the list was the Office of Policy Coordination, a covert arm of the CIA and State Department which likewise operated from 1948-1952 before being merged into the CIA Directorate of Plans. The Office of Policy Coordination achieved extraordinary growth under the guidance of career CIA man Frank Wisner, ballooning from an early allowance of $4.7 million a year to an annual budget of $82 million by 1952. Personnel increased exponentially during the time and included such notable names as psychological warfare expert and UFO man of mystery Col. Joseph Bryan III; eventual Watergate “plumber” E. Howard Hunt, who worked on a psy warfare team assembled by Bryan; and DCI Walter B. Smith, who succeeded DCI Hillenkoetter and took full control of the Office of Policy Coordination into the CIA from its previously shared assignment with the State Department. Smith and Hunt were credited with what was considered a successfully executed 1954 coup in Guatemala, code named Operation PBSuccess, while Bryan and Hillenkoetter became staples of the Board of Governors of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. The saga is explored rather lengthily in this writer's nonfiction book, Wayward Sons: NICAP and the IC . It is all but impossible to separate right-wing extremism from the 20th century intelligence community, as has arguably remained the case for generations. The tendencies of select political figures to court fascism fuels conflict throughout American and global culture, and the UFO genre has certainly had its role in the circumstances. UFO organizations have been used to exploit the topic as a tool for conveying messages of political extremism to potentially credulous audiences. Additional material provided in response to the FOIA appeal includes a previously redacted entire page of the GAO list. The page is now released in full, as pictured below both before and after the appeal. Included are names of some formerly high profile Albanians of interest to the GAO along with select file numbers. Other now unredacted material includes the identification of John M. Anspacher as communicating with the FBI in 1952 on behalf of the Psychological Strategy Board. According to an FBI document, Anspacher “stated his responsibility as a PSB member was to survey the capabilities of various government agencies to determine what might be done in a deterrent or retaliatory manner to offset psychological advantages that momentarily are gained by Russian Satellite countries or the Soviets.” The material provides numerous directions for further research and more FOIA requests. The response contains additional previously undisclosed file numbers and a reference to “FCI,” or foreign counterintelligence. Other items of note for potential FOIA requests include references to correspondence conducted between the FBI and Psychological Strategy Board not included in the records provided. In related FOIA work, a request was submitted to the FBI for records on the CIA Office of Policy Coordination. The Bureau stated in a July 2022 letter it completed a review of responsive records but was withholding the material in its entirety, citing FOIA exemptions (b)(3), (b)(6), (b)(7)(c), and (b)(7)(e). A subsequent appeal was denied. "It is reasonably foreseeable that disclosure of the information withheld would harm the interests protected by these exemptions," the Department of Justice wrote in its Oct. 27 denial of the appeal.