The Ufo Silencers: Mystery of the Men in Black (21 page)

Finally:

Extinguish the candle. Do not remove yourself from the room for at least three full minutes. Stand before the extinguished candle with your eyes open and feel the presence of the Ring of Fire. You will never be the same.

Do this. Follow the instructions very carefully, and you will find actual changes taking place in your life.

MIB In The
Andes

Introduced previously, global investigator Antonio Huneeus has come across only a handful of MIB-related cases, but he has no doubt about the authenticity of this report, which, he says, deserves more merit than some of the other cases he knows about.

###

Traditionally, incidents of "Men in Black," or MIBs, have been largely associated with the
United States
. This is not surprising, since both the story of Albert K. Bender, which started it all, and the book by the late Gray Barker,
They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers
, which popularized MIBs, originated in this country. However, a careful perusal of the foreign UFO literature will produce a few significant MIB incidents anywhere from Mainland
China
to the high Andes of Peru.

A case that took place in 1975 in the town of Sicuani, not far from the famous city of Cuzco in Peru, is of particular interest, since it contains the basic theme of MIB harassment of a UFO witness in an attempt to confiscate important evidence in his possession—in this case a photograph of three flying saucers over the village of Capillani taken by a reporter from Lima.

The case is also important because both the photographer and the investigator,
Cuzco
Ufologist Anton Ponce de Leon, were probably unaware of the rich American literature in this subject. Ponce de Leon, for instance, doesn't speak English at all. Thus, the case is likely "uncontaminated" by previous accounts, something which sociologists

and folklorists studying this or other similar phenomena consider of great importance. The incident has never been published in English as well until this book.

Anton Ponce de
Leon
is an anthropologist, Ufologist, author and social worker from
Cuzco
, the ancient capital of the Incas, who studied at
Cuzco
University
and the National University of La Plata in
Argentina
. He was the regional director in
Cuzco
of the pioneer UFO group IPRI (the Peruvian Institute of Interplanetary Relations) founded in the 1950s by Carlos Paz Garcia in
Lima
, and has therefore documented many interesting UFO cases in the area of
Cuzco
and
Urubamba
, the sacred valley of the Incas. Some of his works and ideas were featured in Shirley MacLaine's third metaphysical book,
It's All In The Playing
, which describes her adventures in
Peru
at the time of the filming of the TV mini-series of her bestseller, Out On A Limb.

I met Senor Ponce de Leon during his visit to
New York City
in 1988, where he lectured in
Queens
about UFO sightings in
Peru
and Inca Cosmology. He was also drawing support for his latest cause, "Samana Wasi" (The House of Rest), a retreat he built in
Cuzco
for the care of abandoned children and elders. At his well-documented lecture in Spanish, Senor Ponce described many interesting UFO sightings and close encounters in the
Cuzco
region which he had personally investigated during the late 70s. These included landing cases with traces of radioactivity, incidents where car engines were stopped, and even a fascinating account of a truck driver who was apparently healed of cancer of the stomach by a light beam from a UFO. The incident that concerns us here, however, is the MIB story from Sicuani, a town located south of
Cuzco
.

As told by Ponce de Leon, "In the year of 1975 there was much talk about UFO sightings in Sicuani, particularly at night, and the peasants were talking about something very worrisome to them, that they were hearing noises under the ground as if machines were working there, according to their expression."
Ponce
went to Sicuani to investigate the flap, which had also spread to the Indian villages of Capillani and Chumo in the high
Andes
, and met in Sicuani a reporter from the newspaper Ultima Hora of Lima, who was looking for him for an interview and background information on the UFO flap. The reporter traveled to Capillani the next morning, where he saw and took a very clear photograph of "three craft crossing behind the tower of the chapel," explained
Ponce
.

The reporter returned very enthusiastic to Sicuani with his photo and left the roll of film with a photographer friend to be developed, because he wanted to return and take more photos. This is the moment where mysterious and so far unidentified MIBs entered the scene. As put by
Ponce
in his lecture, "When the man returned to his hotel [in Sicuani], he found that his room was all messed up. He inquired with the concierge, who told him that 'two gentlemen in black and with hats had come saying that they were friends of yours. As they told me that they were looking for you, I let them enter your room because they were going to wait for you there. Now, I don't know from where they left the hotel.'"

That was just the beginning of a cat and mouse game that went on for several days. When the reporter went to check the photos with his friend, he discovered that "the men in black had visited the photographer and requested the negatives, saying that the reporter wasn't able to come and had asked them to pick up the photos," continued Ponce. Fortunately, the photographer, who knew that the shot of Capillani was very important, thought that there was something wrong with the story and told the MIBs that the reporter had already been there to pick up the photos.

The harassment went on, according to Ponce de Leon, and the reporter was becoming very worried: "He would leave some papers and the papers would disappear, he would return to his hotel and his room had been inspected again, he changed hotels but the problem continued. Finally," added
Ponce
, "he grabbed a taxi and came to
Cuzco
very frightened. He visited me in
Cuzco
, where I personally studied the negatives and I have no doubt that they are authentic. As he was extremely frightened, he took the first plane back to
Lima
and left the negatives with me. I sent them by mail and a few days later the story was published in the newspaper Ultima Hora."

Thus, the MIBs were thwarted in this particular case, although I have not yet located a copy of the photograph of the three saucers over the skies of Capillani. Indeed, I have never even seen a reference to this photo in the three-volume UFO picture book by Spanish writer J.J. Benitez or the book,
Los OVNIy la Evidencia Fotografica
by Argentinian Ufologist Guillermo Roncoroni, both of which contain numerous UFO photos from
South America
. So it is possible that the MIBs may have succeeded after ail in stealing the negatives from the editorial offices of Ultima Hora in
Lima
. Who knows?

UFO Contactee Howard Menger (inset) says he was paid a visit by mysterious "agents" following his taking of photos and movies of UFO and space aliens landing in his Highbridge,
New Jersey
backyard.

The Incredible "Men-in-Black Summer" of 1968

With over 15 million books in print, best-selling author Brad Steiger is well aware of the MIB phenomena, having been confronted with evidence for several decades that the MIB are not the product of overworked imaginations. Here is what his research shows.

###

The unpleasant phenomenon known as the men-in-black, the MIB, appears to be an ongoing program of harassment conducted by an agency that remains unknown and unidentified—although nearly every research in UFOlogy has nominated his most likely candidate for the "men behind the mask." I have dealt with the MIB and the more sinister aspects of UFO research in such books as Mysteries of Time and Space and the newly released The Philadelphia Experiment and Other UFO Conspiracies. I tend to believe that we are dealing with an enigma that has both a physical and a paraphysical reality, and I will refer the reader to either of the two above-mentioned works for a more complete examination of my theories. For this present work, I would like to recall the summer of 1968, a time that was maddeningly busy with significant MIB activity.

On the morning of
Saturday, June 14, 1968
, a man representing himself as an Air Force Major contacted Thomas Wedemeyer, security chief of the Commission on Aerial Phenomena (C.A.P.),
Jamestown
,
New York
. The officer presented papers identifying himself as Major Smedley, an Air Force investigator operating out of
Jamestown
.

Major Smedley questioned Wedemeyer about James Norene, the director of C.A.P. He demanded to know who headed investigations for the organization, and was particularly interested in any information which C.A.P. might have acquired regarding a report made by two state police officers concerning a UFO that had landed outside of
Buffalo
,
New York
, on June 12th.

Major Smedley was not driving an automobile and did not carry an attache case. He was wearing an Air Force uniform. Wedemeyer remembers being intrigued by the peculiar accent with which the visitor spoke. After the Major left, Wedemeyer suffered from an acute headache and could remember nothing of their conversation, for about five minutes.

Later, a C.A.P. check of the local Air Force authorities revealed that there was no Major Smedley working out of
Jamestown
.

"Upon receiving this information," C.A.P. Director Norene wrote to me, "we immediately checked with Air Force Personnel (via teletype) in
Boston
,
Massachusetts
. The reply was most interesting. The Air Force lists no Major Smedley on their records. In other words, such a man is not a member of the United States Air Force. The fact that this person, whoever he might have been, seemed worried that our organization might have pertinent information concerning the reported landing outside of Buffalo prompted us to further our investigation of this incident."

On August 10th, the officers of the C.A.P. were visited by freelance UFO investigators from
Erie
,
Pennsylvania
. In the course of conversation, the visitors told Norene and his staff about a strange incident that had occurred to an associate of theirs.

In the summer of 1967, the Pennsylvania UFO investigator had been contacted by an Air Force officer, who wished to question him regarding his research. The officer had been alone, on foot and carried no briefcase. He had interrogated the researcher for an hour. After the Air Force officer had left the UFO researcher became violently ill and had to be confined to his bed for two weeks.

The Air Force "officer’s" name? Major Smedley!