Mirage Men: An Adventure Into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs [Hardcover]

I thought that this book would be an entertaining read, with anecdotes about CI Ops, UFO buffs, and perhaps the craft of disinformation...my personal interest. I love the eccentricities of buffs of all kinds, and admire their willingness to go total immersion into whatever private world intrigues them. That said, I found little pleasure in this book. I have been reading all day, and I am on the verge of a migraine.

There are two themes in this book that may be of interest to the general reader: first, a history of ufology in America, with lots of inside information, and secondly, an interesting discussion of the use of disinformation by institutions such as - but not limited to - government.

This treatment of ufo lore is thorough, but unfortunately focused upon the characters rather than the events. The ever widening spiral of skeptics and believers becomes too complex to follow unless you are an insider in the ufo world. The events - sightings - could have been the focus to create some narrative timeline stability. The reader feels like an outsider at the spouses Holiday Party, unaware of the complex hierarchies and relationships at play, unappreciative of the subtle dynamics at work, and unable to judge where the center lies. There are too many players, and they wear too many masks, for those of us who have never heard of them to make informed judgements. For the insiders, that's OK, for me, it was frustrating.

By far the better aspect of the book is the treatment of disinformation. Although I dispair of making any sense of MJ-12 and related documents, the authors focus on the possible uses of disinformation in shaping a public perception of almost any issue, including ufos. I would have liked to read of Edward Bernays creation of "public relations" in the context of disinformation. The authors explore disinformation as a means to hide a truth by extrapolating the truth into such a distortion that dismissing the lie successfully disposes of the truth.

The weakness of the book lies in the fact that the authors are players in the game, rather than outsiders looking in. As a confessed crop circle hoaxster, the author enjoys playing with perceptions of truth; as readers, we are never sure whether we are being pranked for the amusement of the authors, or actually let inside the intrigues of the buffs, whistleblowers, and mysterious informants. As the informants come and go, discrediting and validating one another, and the authors provide vague hints of black projects, dead aliens, and secret US craft, I am reminded of the chaff dropped by fighter aircraft to confuse radar with false returns to obscure the truth. By the final pages, we know where they stand on ufos...or do we?

I'd recommend this book to anyone who is an insider wannabe in the ufo world, and wants the purported inside scoop on fellow buffs, or anyone who wants to explore some rather bizarre disinformation theory and practice. For others, be prepared for a wilderness of mirrors.

Let me begin by explaining that I am skeptical of most UFO claims. I am not looking for what "I want to believe." I have been researching the UFO subject for over 30 years, some of which involves a close association with subject matter and persons in this book. And I have concluded that "Mirage Men" is a very important book to read, with a note of caution. It involves people and events that most Ufologist carefully avoid at all costs. Sure the Government Covers-Up UFOs and Alien Visitations, but "Disinformation" is what the other guy believes and I do not! No need to look further.

Mark Pilkington was willing to look. Not without considerable bias as a self confessed Crop Circle Hoaxer. Where he wants to lead the reader becomes self evident in the first few chapters in the book. And that is his privilege as the author. My contention is that one can learn a great deal from this book without confusing an important part of the picture with the whole. This is an important read for Ufologists who wish to deal with the historical and government involvement with the subject.

The first flaw in the book are factual errors. If I am aware of quite a few upon casual reading no doubt it has many more. Not entirely the authors fault, because they tend to be repeated and spread in Ufology without question as long as they fit a certain viewpoints. For example, a single altered AFOSI document that Bill Moore was encouraged to pass on to Paul Bennewitz becomes "false documents." There were a number of documents, but they did not involve the activities against Bennewitz. Later the same document is said to have been "retouched" by Moore and given to Bennewitz. Moore did not alter this document as given to Bennewitz, and only passed it along after much hesitation and a note of caution that it might be fake. To his credit Bennewitz kept it to himself. Such false remarks might seem innocent enough, until they are repeated and spread to form conclusions about activities and people that fit certain agendas. Another example is when the author speculates that Bill Moore was "inclined" to take the NASA involvement Bait because of the astronaut sighting in the original Roswell Book. Those were added by co-author Berlitz as filler. But the misconception has it's real origin in a 1987 MUFON paper that reveals more about a certain individuals 20 year vendetta against Bill Moore personally than it does about the truth of the MJ-12 matter. A paper filled with absurd speculations based on very limited and often second hand information. And while pointing so many fingers at US Intelligence Pilkington parrots the CIA's 1997 Historical UFO explanations. Well researched Critiques of this article are not mentioned or sighted. Considerable research on the MJ-12 Documents is also missing.

Then there is the speculation in order to get you hooked on the authors way of thinking about the UFO and Roswell "Myth." The book would have been better if the author stuck to what he was told in his investigation rather than drift in order to fit so much UFO history in a neat little box. The author confuses what is sometimes the intelligence communities ability at subtle manipulation of belief in place, into incredible powers of deception! And yet the governments ability to deceive in some important instances is well know. Researchers take Note!

Why am I telling you to buy this book? Because this rather dark area of UFO research needs to be discussed. People with strong held beliefs are indeed easily manipulated. And characters like Rick Doty do have something important to say, even if you don't believe much of what they are telling you. We also have Dr. Christopher Green who has some very remarkable insights. He also knows his way around the Intelligence Community and how Government operates. In the end the Author and his research companion begin to have some serious doubts about their own skepticism.

Perhaps the author is correct, and there is little to cover-up than the government own high tech toys. But if they did have something outside of their control with very serious implications to hide, you can bet they would take active counter-intelligence measures to protect it! They might also manipulate belief in what they can't control to test the Public's Reaction. Good enough reason to give this book some serious consideration. You can put information aside until something else comes along to confirm or refute it. And study that with caution as well.

More than anything else this book gives the reader some perspective on the extent of the intelligence community's involvement with the subject of UFOs. One may well wonder why they would even bother. The usual proposed rational is that they have something to hide concerning the extraterrestrial (ET) hypothesis, a crashed ET space craft, or clandestine contact of some sort with ETs. But this book suggests an entirely different rational and one that seems quite plausible.

A number of different agencies are implicated but the main player, and the one the author deals with to the greatest extent, is the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). It is suggested that many of the vast inventory of black budget projects under development are by their very nature quite visible if one happens to be in the right place at the right time. Sometimes their visibility is the whole point, as with radar and other kinds of decoys. Not wanting to be in the business of constantly having to explain their development tests, the AFOSI has a need for some kind of disinformation cover. UFOs, and especially the ET hypothesis, fits their need quite nicely.

The author lays out a scenario backed by a significant amount of research, showing how the AFOSI keeps the UFO fervor jacked up by constantly feeding it disinformational tidbits undercover, and then denying the validity of ET hypothesis up front. It's the best of both worlds for them. Of course, full blown UFO/ET believers will not accept this scenario as sufficient, but others of a more agnostic nature may begin to wonder to what extent the whole UFO/ET phenomenon is simply a false front.

The book is well written, engaging and informative but in the final analysis does it also become a conduit for disinformation? You be the judge. I highly recommend Mirage Men by Mark Pilkington.