In February of 2008, a story burst onto the scene that really shook the earth in the UFO community.  It was the story of a briefing that allegedly took place at the United Nations building in New York City.  According to the story, there were about 30 to 40 people representing their countries, and they were briefed in relation to extraterrestrial reality and presence on Earth.  The story further stated that a plan of acclimating the world’s population to ET presence was agreed upon at the meeting.  Actually, there were said to be several follow-on meetings at which all this was done.

Who gave the briefing?  Why was it done?

According to the story, the briefing was conducted by a U.S. Navy officer.  Why?  Because, the story alleged, the extraterrestrials had made it clear to the U.S.A. that they were not going to stay in hiding forever.  They are said to have told the U.S.A. that either the governments of the world could make disclosure about extraterrestrial presence, or the extraterrestrials were going to do it themselves by showing up in a mass sighting of their craft that would be unambiguous.  The target date for this mass event was 2017.

For the UFO community, the source of the story was the brothers Pickering, Shawn and Clay.  For the Pickerings, their source was Richard Theilman, a man who claimed to be a retired Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy.  The Pickerings would not use his real name because they said it may compromise his activities at pushing for disclosure.  They referred to him as “Source A”

Obviously, explosive news like that is going to be fact-checked.  The UFO community is a bit gun shy these days because of having been exposed to many hoaxes over the years, and the fact checking began almost immediately. 

Eventually, an ad hoc group of people joined in the investigation to see if any of the facts of the story could be verified.  They succeeded in identifying Richard Theilman as “Source A”.  They also succeeded in producing evidence that he is not part of, nor has he been part of the U.S. Navy.  Their evidence looks compelling, and awaits a rebuttal from Theilman.

As interesting as all this is to those who love detective mysteries, none of it is the point.  The point is a question: Did that briefing really take place?

If we assume that Theilman was hoaxing information, can we assume it was all hoaxed?  If the Pickerings were duped by Theilman, does that make the essential story untrue?

Across the ocean from New York City, in the country of France, Gilles Lorant ran into all kinds of trouble after stating on the record that he had attended the follow-on briefings on February 13^th and 14^th.  The trouble bubbled around the issue of his having listed something on his resume that was in error.   While there was a furor around the resume, nothing at all was aimed at his statements that he had been at the follow-on briefings at the U.N. building—briefings related to extraterrestrial presence on Earth.

The reconstructed notes of the meeting that were published by the Pickerings said that a program of acclimation should be undertaken by governments to prepare the world’s population for the reality of extraterrestrials.  It is interesting that shortly after that alleged set of meetings in February 2008, the Vatican began to make several bold steps toward acclimation of the population.  First, the Vatican’s chief astronomer, Fr. José Gabriel Funes, made a statement to the press that for Catholics to believe in extraterrestrials is fine with the church.  He said there is no conflict with the Bible or church teachings for those who believe in extraterrestrial reality.  Then, the Vatican hosted its own meeting having to do with extraterrestrials.  Representatives from about 30 countries were present.  Now before you write this off as being just a religious action, stop and realize that the Vatican IS a government.  It is a sovereign state and the Pope is the head of state.  This meeting was a government action.

Following the alleged briefings at the United Nations building in 2008, there has been a string of governments who have decided to make their UFO files public.  Coincidence?  Perhaps.  Perhaps not. 

Is it possible the briefings at the U.N. building actually took place?  If so, how does that square with the information about Theilman? 

If the briefing actually did take place, that does not mean that Theilman was there, or even involved.  Perhaps he just heard about it from someone who was there.  Perhaps he decided to take what he had heard and weave it into a tall tale for the Pickerings.  We may never know.  But, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet.  Interesting developments followed the dates of those alleged meetings—developments that are in line with what was alleged to have been decided at the meetings.  Yes, it could all be coincidental.  On the other hand, it could point to the reality of the briefings.

This is not an attempt to prop up a discredited story.  Not at all.  I am merely attempting to point out that while some of the information has been discredited, that does not discredit the entire story.  Here is how it works in real life.

Let’s say there is a computer engineer who claims to be a conservative Christian.  He is known by everyone as a man of faith.  That is, until he is discovered frequenting prostitutes.  Now, while that might disqualify him from his church membership, does that mean he is not a good computer engineer?  Does it mean all the computers he built should be thrown away?  Why the very idea!  Computers built by a guy who lied about his faith!

Throwing away those computers would be nutty.  Right?  Yes, it would be nutty unless we knew of some defect in the computers themselves.  Throwing out the entire story of those briefings is just as nutty if all we are going on is the information about Richard Theilman.  There are other events that seem to somewhat corroborate the reality of the briefings.  Unless we have evidence that reveals for sure that the briefings did not take place, we would be wise to keep this one in the “let’s wait and see” column. 

After all, one the classic ways to get the public to switch off a real story is to let the story go public in a way that can and will be discredited.  Masters of counter-intelligence know our tendency to throw the baby out with the bath water.  They use it all the time.