By Matthew Alford,
PhD
After a tense wait, the CIA has finally
stated its position on the explosive “Roswell Happened” comments made by their
former Entertainment Liaison Officer Chase Brandon. Jennifer Youngblood of the Agency's Office of
Public Affairs said that official historians have checked their files but “found
nothing in the Agency’s holdings to corroborate Mr. Brandon’s specific
claims.”
Brandon ignited an ongoing media furore
following his appearance on Coast to Coast AM on June 23 of this year when he
announced that he had seen evidence in a box marked ‘Roswell’ at the CIA’s
Historical Intelligence Collection (HIC) which confirmed “100%” his belief that
the government had recovered an extraterrestrial craft and its occupants near
Roswell, New Mexico in July of 1947.
The CIA was responding by email to a
detailed series of questions sent by a group of British and Canadian
researchers: Robbie Graham, doctoral candidate at the University of Bristol and
editor of silverscreensaucers.blogspot.com, Matthew Alford, Grant Cameron, and
Victor Viggiani. The group’s email requested information about Brandon,
specifically: his current relationship with the CIA; the possibility of
researchers checking his claims; the vetting of his comments by the Publications
Review Board, and whether his utterances disclosed classified information in any
way.
Robbie Graham commented: “The CIA have
done exactly what we expected they would do.
They’ve refused to address our questions and they’ve brushed aside
Brandon’s claims without directly calling him a liar.” He added: “It’s interesting that they say they actually
checked their archives for the ‘Roswell
box’ Brandon described -- that must have been a weird library
trip.”
The purpose of Brandon's statements
remains unclear, with some pointing to him promoting his new book, The Cryptos Conundrum, and others
speculating it could be part of a more sophisticated UFO disinformation or
disclosure strategy.
Youngblood also pointed the researchers
towards the Agency's 1997 supposedly definitive account of its role in UFO
studies, which appears on its website.
