Out There: The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials

by Howard Blum

Written neither by a zealot nor a rabid debunker but a former NY Times reporter, Out There traces the top secret actions of the Defense Intelligence Agency's UFO Working Group of 17 specialists, charged with the mission to determine whether human life is truly alone in the universe. Triggered by a tip from an American spymaster in 1987 while researching his I Pledge Allegiance: The True Story of the Walkers, this work of journalism uncovers decades of government duplicity regarding its investigations of reported extraterrestrial visits. With 212 interviews and some 200 published sources, author Blum's earnest reporting is a gripping & credible documentation of his journey from skepticism to belief.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Conspiracy Theories, Paranormal

301 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1990

About the author

Howard Blum is the author of New York Times bestsellers including Dark Invasion, the Edgar Award–winner American Lightning, as well as Wanted!, The Gold Exodus, Gangland, and The Floor of Heaven. Blum is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. While at the New York Times, he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He is the father of three children, and lives in Connecticut.

Get in touch!
Website: www.HowardBlum.com
Email: Howard@HowardBlum.com
Facebook: Like Howard Blum on Facebook
Twitter: @HowardBlum and @FloorOfHeaven

Reviews

[Dale Stonehouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the places Blum visited for this book is the little town of Elmwood, Wisconsin, west of Eau Claire, where some very close encounters have occurred, including the zapping of a sheriff's deputy by a UFO in the 1970s. I visited Elmwood in Feb. 1991 and again in July that year for UFO Days, and a few people there were not pleased with the fame given their town by Blum. I don't know why, they got a few bucks out of me they never would have seen without the book. This book outed the secret Washington study group meeting about UFOs on a regular basis, probably since the 1940s.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an older book that took a lot of research and showed that the government is more secretive and stupid than we even thought. It seems no one knows anything about UFOs and it all a big secret. Hmmm.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

While by no means the best or most thorough history of the US government's involvements with UFOs, this is still a good, readable journalistic introduction to the matter which does contain some original material derived from its author's interviews. While Blum does not prove that we are being visited by aliens, he does demonstrate that, whatever the actual case, our government, neither forthcoming nor frank, is concerned.

[Bill Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This classic in the UFO genre illustrates well the sociological insight that the ordinary system tautology or coding of communication (such as ‘the law is what the law says it is’) becomes within ufology a reversal - “no explanation at all for UFO sightings was the only explanation possible.” (p. 154) Once a UFO is ‘explained’ or ‘identified’, it is no longer a UFO. Science too must include the negative or ‘false’ side of its coding ‘true/false’, but within the ufological mythos, the positive/negative values are reversed to code as ‘unexplained/explained’. The author, a journalist, calls facts ”a precious commodity” (p. 20), which is refreshing for a book about UFOs. Blum’s reporting suggests that the UFO Working Group had no knowledge about any cover up at Roswell, which I find a reasonable if not perfect debunking of that bit of folklore. His research suggests the CIA’s own continuing research into UFOs (Robertson Panel denials notwithstanding) remained (by the late 80s) “consistently . . . inconclusive”. (p. 152) Again this mostly (if not entirely) debunks a lot of the conspiracy theories. Unless of course one goes down an even darker rabbit hole, to find that the “UFO Working Group itself . . . could be part of the cover up”. (p. 265) In that case the “inconclusive” story is just a false front to satisfy nosey reporters and civilian sleuths. Admittedly this is published in 1990 so from a certain angle it is mostly of historical interest. As Blum spends a lot of time on the development of the SETI project, I found it paired nicely with Joel Achenbach’s Captured by Aliens (1999). It is also written well enough that though the author touches on familiar landmarks in the ufology mythos to support his narrative, he does not spend an inordinate amount of time retracing the steps of prior investigations, which I’ve noticed can become quite redundant if you read a number of these books. It is fairly well balanced in terms of skepticism vs credulity but in the end there are no real answers, only that, in the words of one FBI agent investigating the MJ-12 documents, “‘the government doesn’t know what it knows.’” (p. 267) Overall however, from this certain angle and in its historical context, I found the book unsatisfying, even if I would still call it a classic. Blum is such a good writer and investigator that you feel he must provide some certainty, yet ultimately he offers only the thinnest resolution in the direction of belief, but belief in what exactly is hard to tell.

[Bill Greenwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book remains a "must read" for anyone who is interested in the UFO phenomenon. Whether or not you are a skeptic, a true believer, or fall somewhere in between, this book will give you a great deal to think about. Confoundingly, it will likely cause you to change what you think on the subject, regardless of your initial position. Skeptics will be less skeptical, true believers will be less adamant in their beliefs, and those merely curious will be far more curious. And confused.
Opening with a description of an anomalous space event not publicly reported, the book then delves into how the author literally tripped into the subject matter as a result of an off-hand comment by a source he was consulting with for a different book. That enigmatic comment eventually led Blum into the dark and very confusing world of the United States government's UFO hunters.
Well written and easy tomread, Out There is guaranteed to give you a great deal to think about.

[Dr. James Ashman CEng MIMechE CPhys MInstP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one. A very well researched text, framed into a true 'story-esque' narrative. I'm not normally into this style, as, having said before in previous reviews, I want to see evidence of names, dates, places, documents etc., but I found myself coming around to Blum's style here. Definitely worth a read if you haven't come across this one before.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A JOURNALIST LOOKS AT THE GOVERNMENT’S SEARCH FOR “ALIENS”

Howard Blum (born 1948) is an American author and journalist (e.g., The Village Voice and The New York Times), who is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and author of a number of other books.

He explained in the ‘Note to the Reader’ of this 1990 book, “This is a true story. I verified every name, incident, date, and conversation that is recorded in this account. To accomplish this, I have relied on extensive interviews with civilian and military officials, both past and present; members of the intelligence community; the FBI; and scientists working both in and out of government. I have also consulted confidential military documents, classified research reports, and reports prepared exclusively for the UFO Working Group, as well as research papers and government publications available to the public.”

He recounts, “In January 1958, the CBS television network had devoted a live episode of the ‘Armstrong Circle Theater’ show to a discussion of UFOs. Throughout most of the broadcast Marine Major Donald Keyhoe, a believer, was battling two Air Force spokesmen… The script the major was allowed to read from the Teleprompter was a heavily edited version of what he really wanted to say… Suddenly, he threw it all away. The whole nation was listening and he was sounding the alarm: ‘And now I’m going to reveal something that had never been disclosed before… for the last six months we’ve been working with a Congressional committee investigating official secrecy about UFOs…’ and then the audio went dead. The major kept on speaking, but it was impossible to hear a word he was saying.”(Pg. 59-60)

Blum laments, “The pattern was consistent. No matter what new twist or turn I pursued through the maze of documents, the journey always ended in a dead end. For while I had worked my way through an intriguing secret library of plans, strategies, and concerns, there was still one file missing: the one with proof of flying saucers, with proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life.” (Pg. 68)

He records an exchange between Senator William Proxmire and Carl Sagan over whether government funds should be allocated to SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence]: “‘So you mean,’ he asked Sagan, ‘that if we find some evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, somebody elsewhere has avoided self-destruction?’ ‘That’s very much what many of us believe,’ said Sagan. Well, considered the senator as he began to test the water, if that’s the case, if other worlds might be able to teach us how to survive, maybe SETI’s worth the investment… The senator … concluded that searching for other worlds wasn’t such a bad investment of government funds at all… Congress approved a budget line for NASA’s program to detect radio signals of extraterrestrial origin. A new era of SETI was about to begin.” (Pg. 140)

He notes that the NSA came up with a “grim list of possible consequences of an open and pubic SETI program… Their first scenario involved the possibility of an alien invasion. Through their efforts to detect signals from space, the NSA authors worried, SETI scientists might very well reveal Earth as a habitable planet. And once aliens knew where we lived, they could embark on an intergalactic crusade to colonize a defenseless human race.” (Pg. 150)

He summarizes the CIA’s attitude: “the CIA was neither ignoring decades of sightings, nor had it strictly accepted the easy conclusions of the Robertson Panel. Rather, the agency had by the 1980s reached a somewhat complacent operational level. It acknowledged that no explanation at all for UFO sightings was the only explanation possible.” (Pg. 165)

He points out, “According to classified files (nor made available under the Freedom of Information Act), J. Edgar Hoover had originally wanted to Bureau to take a large role in the flying saucer investigations, but was thwarted by an equally ambitious Air Force. When it became clear the FBI would not be the lead player, a wounded Hover abruptly decided to walk away from the mystery. He, with a single comment, established a policy of official disinterest.” (Pg. 232)

He summarizes, “Why was the government so committed, so conspiratorially determined, to perpetrate the mystery surrounding its fascination with other worlds? Why was the government not telling us everything? The more I puzzled over these questions, the more answers I had to grapple with. Because keeping secrets is a habit… Because … All is never explained… Because when we don’t know, we assume that someone does… Because the glamor of a cover-up gives a daring and a coherence to out irrational fears. A cover-up is an easy answer. Or, because they know. Because for our own safety, or in the national interest, or even for our own psychic good---they have decided not to tell us what is out there. Any one of these answers might be true, I realized. Or some combination of them all. Or none. Even the government doesn’t know what it knows, the FBI agent had warned me. How was I to have known those were words to live by?... A mysterious clique of the powerful has conspired to keep this miracle a secret.” (Pg. 305-306)

This book will be of great interest to those studying UFOs, SETI, and related topics.

[Jacob Dayton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what it promised to be. Started off as an interesting exposé and then VERY quickly turned into a long tedious origin story for the already very public SETI program. If you’ve see anything Carl Sagan you already know basically everything this book has to offer.

[Dale Alan Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun reading but, not, entirely accurate, as one might imagine.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure what to make of the info in this book, but glad I found a copy. At times this book was hard to put down. Definitely worth a read for those interested in the topic.

[Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid if somewhat dry overview.