That little nerdy, kid self who still lives inside me, the one with a briefcase full of UFO books, the one who hoped that all this recent UFO press indicated a real-live, capital-D Disclosure was unfolding, is feeling sad.
Angry, actually.
It started with a brief blog post by Danny Silva, that said Daniel Sheehan was now acting as legal counsel for Lue Elizondo. This is just so many kinds of wrong that even the red flags have red flags.
Elizondo and Chris Mellon have built up a ton of credibility, appearing in an impressive number of mainstream broadcast and print news stories. So why would Elizondo pick as his lawyer, a man who accused him of being an agent of disinformation? That alone strikes me as strange.
Elizondo later in an update to the blog post said:
“I do not endorse or reject anybody’s personal beliefs or opinions. I simply find the most qualified person with the best legal track record to represent my legal interests and ultimately, in the interests of disclosure. The personal opinions of individuals is just that, it’s personal. And allow me to reiterate, I am in no position to endorse or reject anyone’s personal views, provided those views do not interfere or infringe with personal rights, liberties or freedoms.”
But if you are familiar with Stephen Greer and his Sirius Disclosure Project, you know that Sheehan is not, as general counsel, sitting quietly at some oak desk writing legal briefs for Greer. He appeared, for example, in Sheehan’s “Close Encounters of the 5th Kind” and specifically said that Elizondo et al were engaged in a disinformation campaign to make our benign space brothers look like a threat. Why? Well, to bring on “One World Government,” of course.
(I hope the reader will forgive me, but that is as far as I got in the Greer doc, I haven’t seen such a prevaricating pile of self-aggrandizing blather since whatever the last L. Ron Hubbard video was I watched. That’s right, I don’t believe Greer is briefing presidents, chatting with the royal family or visiting underground bases housing crashed alien ships.)
If you are a follower of Greer, you should probably stop reading now, because I don’t know what to say to you. Glad you didn’t get caught up with QAnon, I guess. But for those who see Greer for what he is, Sheehan’s long-term involvement with him should be enough to make you very concerned about Elizondo’s judgment.
Or Elizondo’s agenda.
Elizondo claims that Sheehan’s “personal views” are irrelevant and that he picked the lawyer “with the best track record to represent (his) legal interests.” Seriously? Ok, so let’s start with that. Sheehan’s political agenda, which goes back to the late 80s at least, is to promote a vague, rightwing-inspired conspiracy theory…and this is the important part….at the expense of doing competent legal work.
Don’t believe me? Just ask Martha Honey and Tony Avirgan.
Honey and Avirgan were plaintiffs in a lawsuit around an incident known as the “La Penca Bombing.” The plaintiffs were suing various individuals connected to a bombing in Nicaragua in 1984 that injured Avirgan. The suit alleged that those responsible were figures connected to illegally arming the Contras, and by most accounts, the basic facts of the case could have been enough to win.
But by this time, Sheehan and his Christic Institute were being influenced by various conspiracy theories often originating from far-right sources, such as the Lyndon Larouche cult and the Liberty Lobby. In pursuing a much grander conspiracy (the “Secret Team” ), often with poor or even nonexistent evidence, Sheehan lost what could have been a slam-dunk case.
Avirgnan later stated: “As plaintiffs in the suit, Martha Honey and I struggled for years to try to bring the case down to earth, to bring it away from Sheehan’s wild allegations. Over the years, numerous staff lawyers quit over their inability to control Sheehan. . . .”
It gets worse. Christic was actually fined over one million dollars for filing a frivolous lawsuit. (I am linking to Wikipedia because the source it quotes is the LA Times and it is lodged behind a firewall.)
Sure, Christic said it was all part of the coverup. But even if all of the conspiracy tales were true, Sheehan failed to prove them, and they were not necessary to the case his clients were bringing.
Now, I need to pause here to say this. Sheehan and his devolution from progressive lawyer to rightwing conspiracist took place in a very confusing climate in which many on the left were being taken in by conspiracy theories originating from the far right. And it was not as if these conspiracy theories were made up whole cloth. They often contained elements of truth, though they were exaggerated and twisted to make them more far reaching than the evidence led, and also to suit various ideological agendas. If you found your way here due to your interest in the UFO topic, this should feel very, very familiar.
It would take far too long to revisit that time and place and review all of the various far-right groups and individuals pumping out these conspiracy theories back in the 80s. I lived it, and it was not pretty. Nor were the hairstyles. If you are interested in learning more, I recommend the article quoted above: Big Stories, Spooky Sources, found in the archive of the Columbia Journalism Review, and written by Chip Berlet. If you really want a much fuller understanding of the times and Sheehan’s place in them, you can read “Right Woos Left” by Berlet that discusses many far-right, extremist groups and their influence on organizations like Christic.
Sheehan became General Counsel for Stephen Greer’s Disclosure Project in 2001. This was not his first foray into the ET question, however. From his biography on his website:
In 1977, Dan served as a “Special Counsel” to the United States Library of Congress’ investigation into the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence that had been expressly requested by then President Jimmy Carter. Following this work Dan was invited to present a Three-hour, closed-door seminar on the Theological Implications of Our Contact With Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence to top 50 scientists assigned to The SETI Project (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory….
Hmmm….I actually did not know that the Library of Congress had been asked to investigate the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence by Jimmy Carter. I wonder why President Carter had asked librarians to handle this, rather than, say, some scientists or something. I can’t seem to find anything verifying that such an investigation took place, but I probably don’t have high enough security clearance to access secret Library of Congress files. Ok, a library card. I don’t have a Library of Congress library card. I am so ashamed.
Nor do I see any reference to the presentation to the “top 50 scientists” of the SETI project (I bet scientist 51 was pissed), but that was “closed door” after all.
Sheehan also claims:
More recently, Dan’s work has focused on identifying and cultivating non-dialectical, cooperative models for change. After arriving in California, Dan served as the Director of the New Paradigm Project at Mikhail Gorbachev’s State of the World Forum. There he joined world leaders in examining the obstacles to a new era of sustainable economic and social organization and development.
Gosh darn it. I can’t find any mention of a New Paradigm Project related to the State of the World Forum. I have looked through several captures over multiple years of the State of the World Forum web page, but no mention of anything like that. Sheehan was there, and I suppose must have run one of the many roundtables that took place. But I don’t see any reference to the New Paradigm Project at all. To be fair, Sheehan does have a New Paradigm project. Or at least he has a web page for one. They are, apparently, dedicated to producing New Age word salad. Yum!
It is our belief that the Pathway to World Peace is the transition of adherents to the eight specific Worldviews from their present, often unconscious, adherence to the Ten Key Component Beliefs of the “Lower” Manifestation of a given worldview to their voluntary ascendance to an adherence to the Ten Key Component Beliefs of the “Higher” Manifestation of the same worldview – NOT along the coercive path of attempting to convert adherents to one of the eight worldviews to a different worldview… let alone to ONE single unitary “Worldview.”
Along this path, peaceful cooperation between and among adherents to the “Higher” Manifestation of each of the Eight Alternative Worldviews can be effectuated, generating institutions of cooperation and constructive living among communities and civilizations based upon all eight different Worldviews.
It is our present belief that this “pathway” exists through the “gateway” of The Divine Feminine within the Mode of Spiritual Expression which is generic to each of the eight individual Worldviews.
I mean who can argue with that, amirite?
(See here for an advanced trip down the rabbit hole regarding the Forum and the boy who got a phone call from a spaceship from the future.)
Look, here’s the point. Sheehan is not someone who will quietly handle Elizondo’s legal issues. He will represent himself as equally knowledgeable about the phenomenon and equally worthy of shaping the narrative and use that position to promote his completely indecipherable, conspirotarian worldview. (Conspirotarian is that really tiresome combination of conspiracy-centered and libertarian. Check out the pseudo-scientific, anti-vaxxer, libertarian shit show that was the 2017 Architects of the New Paradigm as an example. Only thing missing is a pop up ad for investing in gold.)
Maybe that’s what Elizondo wants. Who knows? He is perfectly free to undermine his own credibility the way nearly every prominent UFO researcher ends up doing. It’s a tradition in the industry. Why not just invite Richard Doty to the party as well? Or David Icke, for that matter. Just discredit the whole thing once and for all.
Maybe Elizondo’s agenda from the beginning has been to raise the credibility of the topic only to undermine the credibility later, leaving the most prominent UFO researchers looking as stupid as the US Navy apparently wants us to think their fighter pilots are.
But if that’s not his agenda, then could someone kindly let him know that that is exactly what’s about to happen? Quick, please. My inner-nerd kid is now banging his head on his briefcase yelling “Not again!” over and over.
Sorry, kid. I thought this one was the real deal, too.