The Man Who Knew Too Much: The Unthinkable True Story of How the US Government Conspired to Destroy a UFOlogist Who Knew Too Much
The story of Paul Bennewitz is an unthinkable one, and yet it is a true story. It involves the US government conspiring to destroy an American citizen in order to discredit and silence him. This post will tell the story of how Paul, despite having done nothing wrong, was targeted and driven to the brink of madness by the government in a manner that could only be described as extreme and outrageous. We’ll examine the evidence of the government’s wrongdoing and the lessons to be learned from this tragic incident.
Bennewitz’s Obsession
Paul Bennewitz was a brilliant electrical engineer from Albuquerque, New Mexico. After finishing his PhD in physics, he set up his own business, Thunder Scientific, which is still in business today and makes instruments for gauging humidity and temperature. His extensive work with the Air Force and NASA led to him becoming closely located to Kirtland Air Force Base. Paul was interested in the concept of extraterrestrial life and in the late 1970’s he joined the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, or APRO, and sometimes served as a scientific consultant.
Paul became obsessed with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) after witnessing strange lights and aircraft near Kirtland Air Force Base. As a result, he began to research UFOs and ultimately relayed his findings to the federal government through Air Force Intelligence.
Bennewitz was convinced that he had stumbled upon a major conspiracy involving aliens and their high-tech spacecraft. He believed they had set up shop in and around the base and were using the airspace as a staging area for their activities. To back up his claims, he even presented photos of the craft he had taken to government officials. As a result, over a period of a few years the government targeted Paul and systematically worked to destroy him.
How it Started
On the night of August 14th, 1980, Paul Bennewitz had a life-changing experience. In an evening ride with Gabe Valdez, a New Mexico State Trooper, Bennewitz saw some interesting lights. He returned more than once to take pictures of where they had gone, and see what was up there in the daytime. The last time he went with his son, and when they came home, his wife stated there had been humming noises over their house the night before. The interesting thing about the lights Paul saw the night he was out with Trooper Valdez is that it was in Dulce, New Mexico, where there is claimed to be an underground alien base.
Paul lived in the upscale area of the Four Hills which is not too far from Kirtland Air Force base, close to Manzano Weapons Storage. There, he would set up a camera on his rooftop to watch the lights in the sky, taking both still photos and video footage. Late in 1979 to early 1980, Paul Bennewitz watched a couple UFOs, in the form of discs, fly in and out of Manzano Weapons Storage. As if seeing flying disc wasn’t unusual enough, he continued to see them over the span of a few of days.
Alarmed, Paul was surprised that there appeared to be no reaction from anyone stationed around Kirtland Air Force Base. He wondered if anyone was aware that the base was being targeted. Finding the lack of reaction by the Air Force troubling Paul reached out to the government…..
The Beginning of the End
The case of Paul Bennewitz is a complex one, and one of the most interesting aspects of it is how the Air Force and the NSA worked together to discredit him.
How it all went down….
Determined to find out what was happening at the air base, Paul set up night-time surveillance cameras and tried to film any aerial activity with the help of his telephoto lenses. In his opinion, the flashing lights in the sky were extraterrestrial crafts and not a part of secret Air Force activity. So as his investigation developed over the course of the following year, he began aiming other instruments at the site and began detecting electromagnetic pulses which he thought might have been emitted by UFOs that he was filming. Since this is a rather large area that had at the time the nation’s largest underground supply of nuclear weapons components, Bennewitz felt that he might have found some kind of an alien campaign to either spy or attack, and so he was fully prepared to share his evidence with the Air Force.
In the spirit of being a good American, he called Kirtland Air Force base to let them know and was called into a meeting. Interestingly, Bennewitz was allowed to speak with the heads of every department at Kirtland AFB. Sometime after those meetings Paul was introduced to Special Agent Richard Doty, of the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Paul was led to believe that Doty would be his liaison and he was encouraged to continue his investigation.
Unbeknownst to Paul earlier that summer Special Agent Doty had already begun a disinformation campaign against the UFO community. Doty had begun ingratiating himself APRO investigator Bill Moore. As a matter of fact Moore was the very first victim of Doty’s campaign. Moore had been passed a “classified” document about “Project Silver Sky”. This document supposedly detailed the recovery of a crashed UFO. While the document was ultimately declared a forgery Doty was able to convince Moore that the document was just a test to see if Moore was worthy of receiving classified intel about aliens. Stupidly, Moore believed Doty and agreed to help Doty pass false information along to other UFOlogist in exchange for access to the real documents.
In November, just a week after Bennewitz’s meetings with the heads of Kirtland AFB, Bill Moore was summoned to Kirtland and shown a document with analysis of Bennewitz’s footage and mention of Project Aquarius. Moore was then instructed to befriend Bennewitz, a task which would be simple for an experienced UFOlogist like Moore. Early the following year, Doty gave Moore another document very similar to “Project Silver Sky” however, there had been some mysterious changes to the document. It now named an organization or group called MJ Twelve who received a sneak peek of Project Aquarius’ findings. Doty instructed Moore to show it the document to Paul. These documents led Paul down a rabbit hole because they proved that the USAF, NASA, and more secretive agencies were interested in his research and took it very seriously.
Doty’s machinations led Bennewitz to believe that he could create a device to communicate with the aliens. So, he built a low frequency receivers to receive electromagnetic transmissions from alien crafts. When Paul began receiving alien messages Doty and Moore confirmed that it was real data! This in turn motivated him to take his research to the media and inform other UFO investigators about his conclusions. And with this the puppet-masters succeeded in disseminating false information across the entire field of ufology.
The NSA Gets Involved
It is now known that the United States government, particularly the National Security Agency (NSA), was involved in the events surrounding Paul Bennewitz and his claims of alien contact. Air Force intelligence stationed at Kirtland, and perhaps National Security Agency personnel as well, encouraged him to continue his investigations and continue reporting back to them. It seems the NSA thought that Bennewitz had been able to pick up experimental signals in the area and they wanted to learn how he had managed to do it.
Once the NSA was involved the Psychological Operation against Paul was kicked into high gear. Doty offered Paul a new computer, which was supposedly sent to him from famed UFOlogist J. Allen Hynek. Doty told Paul that the computer was technologically advanced and the software would help him accurately decode the alien signals. What Paul didn’t know was that NSA had purchased a home across the street from him in an effort to surveil him and beam signals directly to his reception arrays. Paul was ecstatic when it appeared that the computer was working. Suddenly the alien transmissions were clear and compelling. He began receiving messages like, “Our race is dying on the home planet,” “women of Earth are needed,” and “the US military has delivered embryos.” At this point Paul had fallen so far down the rabbit hole that he was incapable of deciphering fact from fiction. He didn’t have the ability to analyze the incoming data much less access why these aliens would broadcast their plans for anyone to read, like some narcissistic villain in a bad movie.
The extent of the conspiracy against Paul Bennewitz remains unclear. What is certain, however, is that his life was destroyed by those who felt threatened by his knowledge. At some point during Paul’s investigation he and his wife began developing red marks all over their body which resembled burn marks. It has since been revealed that the NSA was in possession of sensitive documents concerning advanced technologies such as Active Denial Systems (ADS) and Active Denial Technology (ADT). These technologies were apparently being developed by Sandia labs and Kirkland Air Force base, with the aim of producing a non-lethal weapon that could be used against enemies. Were they using this technology on the Bennewitz family? The answer to that is also unclear what is clear is that Paul and his wife were being physically impacted by his research into UFO’s.
Bennewitz Downward Spiral
Eventually Pauls investigation led him to believe that the underground alien base was located in the Archuleta Mesa area near Dulce, New Mexico, about three hours north of Albuquerque. While we don’t know if Doty pointed Paul in that direction what we do know is that in a stunning move, the Air Force took derelict equipment and military personnel and sent them to Archuleta Mesa in order to perpetuate Paul's belief that it was an alien base. Special Forces was ordered to pose as if they were guarding the secretive base, and the local Army base was incentivized to conduct exercises on the base as well. The government went so far as to clear away brush for helicopter landings, even illuminating the night sky with powerful searchlights, all in an effort to fool Bennewitz, who had taken to piloting his own plane and risking injury over the nearby Manzano Mountain, believing he could spot evidence of his theory. Why? Why would the government spend millions of dollars to pull the wool over Pauls eyes? There is no definitive answer to this question.
By the late 80’s Doty and Moore claim that they had ceased the psychological campaign against Paul but by this time it was too late. Paul was certain that he had uncovered a huge conspiracy he could not have predicted the reaction that followed his revelations. Instead of being applauded for his work, Bennewitz was labeled a lunatic and a security risk, and he was isolated from the government’s inner circle.
Bennewitz soon found himself in an unwinnable situation, as the U.S. government sought to suppress his findings and discredit him as a person. Soon he began to lose his grip on reality. He became paranoid and delusional, speaking incoherently at times. While Paul was aware that the government was in some way responsible for the things that he was experiencing he was mentally unable to assimilate what was happening to him. He kept guns and knives all around his house and installed extra locks on his doors. “They” (meaning the aliens) were supposed to be coming through the walls at night and injecting him with hideous chemicals that kept him unconscious for hours. Insomnia began to increase for him. His health and appearance deteriorated, he lost significant weight and his hands shook. Finally, Paul became convinced his own wife was an alien spy, which led to him being put into psychiatric care.
The Why of it All
Why? Why would the government do this to one lone scientist? Was it because during Paul's surveillance of the Air Force base he accidentally witnessed something he shouldn’t have? Was it really secret military equipment or was it UFO activity as Paul believed?
Common sense tells us that the destruction of Paul Bennewitz couldn’t have possibly been just about discrediting a UFOlogist! Remember that Paul first went to the Kirtland Air Force Base Security Office and confided his findings. He had no intention of going to the Media. He was trying to be a good citizen. Only after he was lied to and manipulated by Doty and Moore for years and this relationship turned sour, did he publicize his evidence and theories. But even if the government, the NSA or someone had wanted to shut him up, they could have told him to stay quiet, arrested him and taken his files, materials and all his equipment. But they didn’t…Why?
The EMPs Paul detected can be explained away by attributing them to the Sandia National Laboratories nearby. Sandia tests EMPs which typically come about in nuclear detonations. But what about the strange lights in the sky over Manzano Weapons Storage Complex?
Government documents reveal that the strange lights were likely due to the activity of helicopters over Kirtland. There has long been a conspiracy theory about Operation Mirage, where helicopters were specially equipped with strange lights in order to appear as UFOs. We know for a fact that the government was and is developing technology for soundless helicopter flight so is the idea that during this time open warfare no the UFO community they would camouflage helicopters to appear as UFO’s? No, not really.
Here’s the kicker: when Paul’s original film of the discs was returned from the air force, the first 35 frames had been lost. Had Paul and his wife really witnessed something unexplainable? Was the first footage of the objects coming and going from Kirtland Air Force Base real, and had Paul Bennewitz just been trying to uncover the truth? I mean it stands to reason that if the government was willing to go to these lengths to hide something, then it had something to hide. Don’t you agree?
The Aftermath
The story of the man who knew too much and the lengths to which the United States government was willing to go to protect its secrets remains a shocking reminder of the power of government and the threat posed to innocent citizens. Paul was an innocent victim caught up in a vortex of events that he could not control. After being manipulated by the government he suffered from extreme physical illness as well as debilitating mental issues, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In the aftermath of this incident, many questions were raised about government surveillance and the use of covert tactics. For example, do U.S. intelligence agencies operate within legal limits? Do they know when they are crossing over into illegality? If so, do they care? What is accountability for these organizations when they cross over into illegality or lawlessness? Where does the buck stop? Just what isn’t the government telling us about what is in our skies? Have alien beings visited Earth? Is there evidence that we have been contacted, and even visited by extraterrestrial beings?
We must hold our governments accountable. We cannot allow ourselves to become complacent. Our world has changed with technology, with how people interact, with how information flows around the world at lightning speed; but human nature has not changed. And those who govern us do not always act responsibly or with our best interests at heart. We have to be willing to confront uncomfortable truths, without regard to their political implications. To speak out against tyranny and injustice wherever it occurs. To speak truth to power. We need only to look at how Google tracks people and shares data on them without their knowledge or consent to see that there are few limits on how far a government might go if it deems necessary — so it’s time for you and me to step up!