AudioBlog: UFOs, NICAP, and the CIA

by Charles LearOf all the private organizations devoted to UFO
investigation, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial
Phenomena was arguably the most ambitious and tenacious. This was
driven in large part by its director, Donald Keyhoe. Keyhoe held
the beliefs that UFOs are extraterrestrial and that the U.S.
Government, particularly the Air Force, was keeping information
from the public that could possibly prove the ET hypothesis. As
effective as NICAP was at hounding the Air Force and convincing
many in the U.S. Congress that UFOs were deserving of scientific
study, there are indications that the CIA was involved in both the
beginning and the end of the organization.Todd Zechel wrote about
the CIA – NICAP connection in the January 1979 issue of Just
Cause, the newsletter put out by Citizens Against UFO Secrecy.
NICAP was incorporated in 1956, and two men Zechel argues were
covert CIA operatives were put into chair positions within the
organization. One of these men was Bernard J. O. Carvalho, who was
made the chairman of NICAP’s membership subcommittee According to
Zechel, Carvalho worked as a “front man” for companies secretly run
by the CIA. The other was “Count” Nicolas de Rochefort, who was
made Vice-Chairman of NICAP. According to Zechel, de Rochefort
worked with the CIA’s Psychological Warfare Staff. Zechel tells the
reader “there is more than ample evidence to conclusively establish
both de Rochefort and Cavalho were at least during certain periods
of their lives covert employees of the Central Intelligence
Agency.”Read more