SERPO Was A Big Fat Fake

I have maintained for over a year now (along with a few other researchers) that the SERPO story which surfaced in late 2005 and continued well into in 2006 was very likely a disinformation operation designed to ensnare unsuspecting UFO researchers and all those interested in UFO information in order to track connections and interests. This is remarkably similar to the events which surrounded Paul Bennewitz and the UFO community in the 1980s. The fact is less remarkable when we consider that some of the same people came out of retirement to lend support to the project.

SERPO was supposedly a planet orbiting in the Zeta-Reticuli star system where in 1965, 10 American men and 2 women in the military were sent in an exchange program for one alien who stayed on Earth. They were supposed to stay for ten years, but ended up returning 13 years later. The account posted on theSERPO site reads very much like certain documents and confidential letters that were sent to Bennewitz from 1980 to ‘87. On December 6th of 2005, some of the original players appeared on the Coast To Coast show with George Noory, along with Whitley Strieber and SERPO webmaster Bill Ryan. 

I figured from what I was able to gather in private conversations and from open sources that the whole campaign was designed to cover up a super-secret military project, perhaps involvingUnmanned Aerial Vehilces (UAVs.) Victor Matinez, a subsitute teacher in the Los Angeles area, was chosen as the public face of the SERPO story, and began by sending emails to selected members of the Ufological research community in the fall of 2004. The intrigue was built slowly, perhaps as a way to gauge the reaction, and to figure out who was interested, so as to cater to their prejudices. Martinez was emailed various statements by someone who referred to himself as “Request Anonymous,” and expected to forward them to UFO researchers, as well as post them on the SERPO website. Since Martinez’ background is apparently in writing and editing, he began to change the wording and grammar of the releases. He was reportedly told at one point to stop doing this, or he would be dropped for another contact. Apparently he couldn’t help himself, as Bill Ryan, a previously unknown personality was picked out of the blue to take over for Martinez. Ryan did as he was told and remains the point man on the now mostly dead issue. (He has continued with another site called “Project Camelot.”)

Why should “Request Anonymous” care about spelling and grammar errors? Shouldn’t he have been grateful to Martinez for his services in getting the truth out to the public? This would make sense if SERPO was really an attempt to get a secret UFO story out. A quick look at the SERPO site should immediately raise questions. “Request Anonymous” writes:

The 12 remained until 1978, when they were returned to the same location in Nevada. Seven men and one woman returned. Two died on the alien’s home planet. Four others decided to remain, according to the returnees. Of the eight that returned, all have died. The last survivor died in 2002.

The math is wrong. How could eight people return to Earth out of twelve when two died on the planet and four decided to remain? My contention is that this was a deliberate mistake designed as a calling card or message that would be recognized as such by those who were supposed to know where to look for more information elsewhere in the text. Martinez was dropped because he was garbling the message. Meanwhile, Ufologists and radio hosts were busy decphering their own meanings from the latest craze that flattered their prejudices and helped to spread the SERPO meme in cyberspace, on the airwaves, and in UFO publications. “Mistakes” like these sometimes hide in plain sight, but many UFO investigators are too busy looking at the finger to realize where it’s pointing. The disinformers used a story that had been circulating for at least 20 years and built on it to lend creedence to the campaign.

A group of researchers calling themselves the “TC Group” have been trying to get to the bottom of the story for awhile now, and appear to be closing in on some aspect of the truth. From theUFO Digest site:

According to the Open Minds Research Team Web site administrator and a report directly from their confidential sources posted this week, previous information provided to them about Project SERPO was false – at least partially false:

New information given to the Open Minds Research Team from their sources, known has the TC Group, was partially related to a method used by government authorities to track leaks, identify leakers and monitor the way such information is disseminated over the Internet, according to the site administrator. Starting in March 2006, the Open Minds Research Team had reported on their Web site that the TC Group had contacted them. This group allegedly had inside knowledge about the Project SERPO story and been trying to follow up on the authenticity of various aspects it.

The TC Group is reportedly one of several groups involved in investigating and disclosing information on this and related topics.

From what were believed to be reliable sources providing information to the TC Group, the Open Minds Research Team received and posted information from this group that claimed Project SERPO was, in part, a false cover story.

Sources told the TC Group that the Project SERPO story was released within the military and intelligence communities to protect other real information about related activities within those communities.

This is almost exactly what happened in the Bennewitz scenario and later disinfo released in connection with the project. Certain information on undergound bases, alien exchanges, and alien “weapons” were confidentially leaked to certain researchers like John Lear and William Cooper. The leaks were monitored to see who got the info passed on to them first, and what they did with it. Since a lot of the information dealt with secret defense projects, when the same rumors began to circulate amongst unfriendly agents, the AFOSI and others could track who was talking to whom.

In the case of SERPO, some of the most vocal members of the UFO community have swallowed it again.

Source: http://www.ufomystic.com/2007/02/22/serpo-was-disinformation/