Flying Saucers from the Kremlin

by Nick Redfern

  UFO researchers David Clarke and Andy Roberts say: “The Aetherius Society were never a huge organization, indeed their numbers rarely totaled more than one thousand members worldwide…The Aetherius Society was not for everyone but, for those seekers who wanted or needed a spiritual dimension to their saucer beliefs, they provided a philosophy, structure and network of sincere like-minded souls.”

  George King suffered a heart-attack in 1986, underwent a multiple heart bypass in 1992, and died in Santa Barbara on July 12, 1997. The Aetherius Society, though, continues to thrive. Now, it’s time to address matters relative to the Aetherius Society, nuclear weapons, Russia, the U.K.’s Communist Party, and the secret surveillance of ufologists.

  So far as can be determined, George King and his Aetherius Society did not attract the secret attention of the world of officialdom until 1957, specifically in May of that year. It was on the 26th of the month that an eye-catching article appeared in the pages of a weekly U.K.-based publication called The Empire News. In an article titled “Flying Saucer Clubs Probe: Peace Messages ‘from outer space,’” the following was revealed: “‘Warnings’ from outer space against Britain’s H-Bomb tests published in a flying saucer magazine take a similar line to Moscow-inspired propaganda. The ‘warning’ – in a special issue of the magazine – is being scrutinized by Scotland Yard’s Special Branch [the origins of which date back to 1883 and which, in 2006, was absorbed into the Metropolitan Police Service’s Counter Terrorism Command]. It is suspected that a number of flying saucer clubs – and some spiritualists as well – are unwittingly being used by the communists. The warning appears in the magazine of the Aetherius Society, which circulates widely among flying saucer enthusiasts.”

  Not only that, The Empire News revealed that George King had, as he put it, received a channeled message from advanced entities from the planet Mars. Its decidedly anti-nuke message went as follows: “Have not the latest peace moves come from Russia? You in the West blame Russia and say it is necessary to make these weapons to protect yourselves from them. You in Britain are in a favorable position to show the larger countries the way.”

  It’s hardly surprising that a body like Special Branch would sit up and take notice of (a) this development in the world of the Aetherius Society and (b) the pro-Russian words of the Martians. King wasted no time in contacting Scotland Yard, demanding to know why, exactly, he and his group were now under surveillance by government authorities. Well, given both the timeframe and the climate, it should have been glaringly obvious: the authorities saw King’s words (and those of his claimed Martian friends) as nothing less than outright propaganda designed to make the U.K. government look bad and the Russians look good. In a letter of May 26, King scolded Scotland Yard and did his utmost to try and put things straight. He wrote in his letter that the Aetherius Society was actually “a religious and occult society, which has contact with Intelligences on certain other planets. We are non-political and non-sectarian.” That’s certainly not how the authorities saw things, though.

  As to how Special Branch became involved in all of this weirdness, and learned of the activities and statements of King, well, that’s all very simple. The Empire News was very much a right-wing newspaper. King’s political views were anything but right-wing. It transpires that one of the staff of The Empire News, concerned and pissed that King was using his Cosmic Voice publication to promote communism, contacted Scotland Yard just a couple of days before their planned article on King appeared. According to Special Branch, their source at the publication “wished to bring it to the notice of this department in view of the, in his opinion, Communist bias of part of the contents which refer to the atom bomb.”

  The result was that Scotland Yard opened a file on King and his colleagues. They did much more than that, though. After receiving King’s letter of disgust as to how his organization was being portrayed and presented, on May 31 an officer headed out to King’s home. The matter of King, his motivations, the goals of the Aetherius Society, the comments concerning Russia and nuclear weapons, and alien life were discussed frankly – and surreally, too. The Special Branch officer who had the task of speaking with King wrote the following summarized “Special Report:”

  “I disclosed my identity and told King that I had come to see him in connection with his letter to the Commissioner. I pointed out to him that in this letter he stated ‘The article purports to give a report of some recent work of this Society and states that the Society is being scrutinized by the Special Branch of Scotland Yard,’ whereas the article states, ‘The ‘warning’ – in a special issue of the magazine – is being scrutinized by Scotland Yard’s Special Branch.’

  Many might say – justifiably – that there is very little difference between scrutinizing the words of the “warning” and scrutinizing the work of the Aetherius Society. The head-to-head at King’s home was just about as cordial as it could have been. From then on, however, and for a couple of years, King and his followers were watched intensely. Interestingly, Special Branch officers took careful studies of King’s written output, too. Take note of the following, prepared by a Special Branch officer in May 1957:

  COSMIC VOICE (Special Emergency May 1957) consists of a cover page and three pages of cyclostyle printed matter stapled together and is printed and published by THE AETHERIUS SOCIETY, 88, The Drive Mansions, Fulham Road, S.W.6. In page 1 of the printed matter one George KING is referred to as the Chairman of the society.

  On page 1, which is headed “Introduction. You are responsible,” it is stated that KING is able to tune in telepathically to mental radiations from a Space Station in the orbit of the Earth, 1550 miles above its surface, which is controlled by an entity from the Planet Mars, referred to as Mars Sector 6. It also states that an appeal for the cessation of nuclear experimentation was transmitted on the 7th May, 1957 from the Space Station. Pages 2 and 3 give the text of this message in full. In brief, it is an appeal to the ordinary man to protest through spiritual progress against nuclear bombs.

  Reference is made on page 1 to the placing of blame by the West on Russia [italics mine] because it is said that it is necessary to make weapons for protection against this country, and the question is asked, “Yet, Western Civilizations, have not the latest Peace moves come from this country you condemn.” The trend of the text is more religious than political in general. KING is obviously a crank.

  King claimed that some 600 copies of the Special Emergency Supplement of “COSMIC VOICE” dated 7th May, 1957 has been printed, and that copies had been sent to Buckingham Palace, No. 10, Downing Street, President Eisenhower at Washington, to 125 Members of Parliament, Prime Ministers of the Dominions, etc., as well as to Religious and Social Reform authorities and to many newspapers.

  Special Branch certainly viewed King as, in their words, a “crank.” As the extract from the previously-classified document above shows, however, they also came to quickly realize that he was highly motivated when it came to getting the word out regarding his views on nuclear weapons and the Russians. That alone was certainly a matter of deep concern to the authorities. The surveillance continued at a steady and secret pace. Another Special Branch document, from 1959, provides the following on the Aetherius Society: “It crusades for the suspension of the H-bomb tests and supports the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. It took part in the 1958 Aldermaston March and holds public meetings from time to time. One was held on 23rd August 1959 when 200 persons formed a ‘quiet, amused’ audience. It was covered by Special Branch.”

  The reference to the “Aldermaston March” is a highly important one, as will now become apparent.

  An arm of the U.K. Government’s Ministry of Defense, the Atomic Weapons Establishment – known informally as “Aldermaston” - is situated on what was previously a military base: Royal Air Force Aldermaston, Berkshire, England. It takes its name from the village that is home to the AWE. It’s important to note that in the late 1950s there
was a great deal of concern on the part of the people of the U.K. that, in the event of a nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, the U.K. would also end up getting dragged into the maelstrom and, inevitably, totally wiped off the map, too. The outcome of these concerns was that more and more people chose to take a highly proactive approach to making their concerns and fears known to the government of the day. This was largely due to the creation, in 1957, of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Its president was the renowned writer, political activist, and socialist, Bertrand Russell.

  In an effort to highlight their views and worries relative to ever-growing nuclear proliferation, the CND decided to organize what became known as the “Aldermaston Marches.” The public was encouraged to hit the road – on foot – and head off from London to the AWE facility in the sleepy little village of Aldermaston, which dates back to the 12th century and that, today, has a population of barely one thousand. The first such march took place on the Easter weekend of April 4-7, 1958. It was a significant event, one that let the U.K. Government know that not everyone was in accord with officialdom’s policy on nukes.

  Several thousand people took to the highways and the byways, all to have their say. Loudly. The presence and actions of the CND clearly had sizeable numbers of the people of the U.K. all revved up and ready to go. As evidence of this, in the march of 1960, more than sixty thousand people turned up at Trafalgar Square, London, with more than one hundred thousand making the trek to Aldermaston. Members of the Aetherius Society took a proactive part in every march from 1958 to 1965. Such was the CND’s satisfaction with the first weekend of protest, the march became a yearly event: it continued until 1965 and was briefly resurrected in 1972. One of those who was a regular fixture at the marches was Michael Foot. He was a U.K. Member of Parliament who crusaded against nuclear weapons. Foot was also the leader of the Labor Party from 1980 to 1983 and gave his backing to the CND. We’ll come back to Michael Foot imminently. You’ll see why.

  It was certainly the case that the Aldermaston marches largely went ahead with an absolute minimum of violence. U.K. authorities, though, were concerned by the possibility that the demonstrations just might have been secretly infiltrated by “Communist agitators;” even by Russian operatives, passing themselves off as members of the U.K. public and doing their utmost to whip up a frenzy and to get the lowdown on the CND. Both MI5 (the U.K.’s equivalent of the FBI) and MI6 (the U.K.’s CIA) were deeply worried that the Russians had wormed their way into the hearts of the CND and those who were coordinating the annual marches to Aldermaston. Those suspicions were amplified – and perhaps even vindicated - when, in the 1980s, damning data surfaced on the aforementioned Michael Foot.

  Oleg Gordievsky was born in Moscow, Russia in 1938 and received training with The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (the NKVD). In 1963, he joined the KGB, achieving the rank of colonel. Gordievsky was soon posted to the Soviet Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was while he was stationed in the city that Gordievsky became very disillusioned by his time spent in the KGB; to the extent that he decided there was only one cause of action he could take: Gordievsky carefully planned on secretly working for the other side, the West. The Danish Security Intelligence Service took deep note of Gordievsky. They wasted no time in contacting their counterparts in MI6. Staff at MI6 were informed that Gordievsky just might be willing to switch sides, albeit with him still appearing to be faithful to his controllers in the KGB. MI6 was quick to react. Until the mid-1980s, Gordievsky played the role of dutiful KGB officer, but all the time he was leaking classified, and important, material to British intelligence. It didn’t last, though. Everything came crashing down in 1985, which was when Gordievsky’s cover was finally blown. He was soon back in Moscow, going through nothing but brutal interrogation. The future looked bleak; very bleak. It turned out, however, that matters were not so bad, after all. In July 1985 Gordievsky was smuggled out of Russia, into Finland, and then onto the U.K., via Norway. It would be more than half a decade before Gordievesky’s family could follow him. All of which brings us back to the controversies surrounding Michael Foot.

  Gordievsky reeled off an astounding amount of material that provoked wide-eyes and jaw-dropping gasps within MI6’s corridors of power. One of the many revelations was that the KGB had a relationship with Michael Foot. Not only that, Foot had been secretly paid by the KGB to provide information on the Aldermaston marches and on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, both to which Foot was deeply connected. Although the Sunday Times newspaper was sued by Foot – successfully, it must be stressed – for printing such claims, it’s a fact that the rest of Gordievsky’s extensive revelations proved to be true. Now, in conclusion, we return to the Aetherius Society and a few salient points:

  Special Branch recorded that George King’s alien-driven organization “crusades for the suspension of the H-bomb.”

  The members of the Aetherius Society took part in the Aldermaston marches that KGB asset Michael Foot also took part in.

  The Aetherius Society gave its support to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

  The marches, those on them, and the CND had been targeted by the KGB, as had Michael Foot, something that Oleg Gordievsky noted.

  One can easily see why Special Branch kept their beady eyes on George King and his followers. Taking into consideration the threads above, who in the intelligence community wouldn’t have?

  Now, let’s forge ahead, but still on the matter of the Cold War. As a result of the seriously fraught situation that existed between the United States and Cuba in the early 1960s, U.S. intelligence did its utmost to try and find ways to oust Fidel Castro from power. One such early-1960s-era operation is almost hard to believe. While it didn’t involve UFOs, it most certainly did revolve around the faking of a supernatural entity in the skies over Cuba; and so, in that sense, it’s highly relevant to the overall story. It provides us with yet another example of how the world of the paranormal was utilized by intelligence agencies to do its utmost to manipulate world events. Before we get to the program itself, a bit of background data is required.

  Staff at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library say: “In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The U.S. government distrusted Castro and was wary of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union. Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States.”

  The CIA provides important data on the U.S.-Cuba situation in this same time-frame:

  “The establishment of a Communist state 90 miles off the coast of Florida raised obvious security concerns in Washington and did not sit well with President Eisenhower. In February 1960, Cuba signed an agreement to buy oil from the Soviet Union. When the U.S.-owned refineries in the country refused to process the oil, Castro seized the firms, and the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with the Cuban regime. To the chagrin of the Eisenhower administration, Castro established increasingly close ties with the Soviet Union while delivering fiery condemnations of the U.S. The American-Cuban relationship deteriorated further when Castro established diplomatic relations with our Cold War rival, the Soviet Union. Castro and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev signed a series of pacts that resulted in large deliveries of economic and military aid in 1960. Within a year, Castro proclaimed himself a communist, formally allied his country with the Soviet Union, and seized remaining American and foreign-owned assets. Eisenhower authorized the CIA to conduct a covert operation to rid the island of its self-appointed leader. The CIA formulated a plan to recruit Cuban
exiles living in the Miami area. It would train and equip the exiles to infiltrate Cuba and start a revolution to ignite an uprising across the island and overthrow Castro.”

  It didn’t work out quite like that, as the ill-fated, disastrous outcome of the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 - designed to get rid of Castro - demonstrated. Things got worse in October 1962. That was when the Cuban Missile Crisis almost plunged the world into a civilization-ending nuclear war. It was in this period that a military figure, renowned for his ability to think out of the box to an incredible degree, got involved in the attempts to have Castro removed from power. That man was Major General Edward Geary Lansdale. His career was long, notable and extremely alternative. In the Second World War, Lansdale spent a great deal of time working for the Office of Strategic Services. The OSS – with its spies and “secret-agents” – was the inspiration for the CIA, which was created two years after the end of the war.

  When Hitler and his hordes were finally defeated, Lansdale headed off to the Philippines, specifically to Headquarters Air Forces Western Pacific. Eight years later, he took a position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Lansdale became the Deputy Assistant to the SoD. It was while he was in the office that Lansdale really demonstrated his flair for all things off the wall. Perhaps the weirdest of all of Lansdale’s strange ideas was a plan to fake a “Second Coming” of Jesus Christ in the skies over Cuba! The story can be found in a November 20, 1975 document with the lengthy title of Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: Interim Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. It contains the curious testimony of a man named Thomas A. Parrott, who died at the age of ninety-two in 2007.