“Did Steven Greer Fake a UFO with flares?

Unlike in Show Biz where it is “better to be noticed than unnoticed”, in Ufology, there is such a thing as bad publicity. Joseph Burkes MD 2022

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/did-steven-greer-fake-a-ufo-with-flares

Political journalist Tom Rogan has been seen on the Tucker Carlson TV show acknowledging the reality and importance of the UFO phenomenon. In the article linked above appearing at the conservative news website, “The Washington Examiner”, in 2020 he focused on Dr. Steven Greer’s CSETI “Ambassadors” trainings and asks, “Did Steven Greer Fake a UFO with flares?”

Rogan describes the now famous and controversial Jan 27, 2015, CSETI outing in which two brilliant lights were video recorded off the coast of Florida. Critics claim that these video images are nothing more than flares dropped from a plane flying over the water. Tom Rogan investigating the incident discovered information suggesting that this may indeed have been the case. 

Reportedly using FlightAware flight tracking data, Rogan discovered that there was a private plane over the water in the exact location where the lights were observed to be. In addition, the craft was reportedly moving at the low speed of 85 miles per hour. This presumably could allow its crew to deploy parachuted flares. 

On the AATIP Facebook page, where I found this Washington Examiner link, in the comment section Steven Greer was accused of running a cult as well as being a hoaxer. 
Here is my response in edited form:

There are spiritual components of the CSETI program that might be mistaken as a new religion or cult, but Steven Greer is no typical cult leader in my judgment. I was a member of this Board of Directors for five years, 1992-1997, a coordinator for the LA CE-5 contact team and a spokesperson for his Center. I left in 1998 for personal and political reasons, but I must affirm that he functioned during the early days like a human UFO magnet. Multiply witnessed bona fide UFO sightings did occur on many of his outings, but curiously only during the initial Gulf Breeze encounter in 1992 did he ever get quality video. 

Steven Macon Greer is not the only person that functions like a “UFO magnet.” I worked with several others. I call these very unusual people, “Prime Contactees” and they all follow a similar pattern to Greer. Frequent UFO sightings as youths, advanced meditation practice typically with no adult supervision or encouragement, and the ability to attract the phenomenon to them with others present to verify their special relationship with the intelligence behind the phenomenon.

For these and other reasons, Mr. John Petersen of the Arlington Institute and friend of James Woolsey (CIA head under Clinton), set up meeting for Greer with Woolsey in 1993. The Pentagon also had liaison with the CSETI Director by permitting Commander Will Miller of Navy Intelligence to be his “advisor/case officer.” This part of history is outlined in Grant Cameron’s book “Managing Magic.” Grant Cameron in my judgment effectively demonstrates how the Executive Branch intelligence services employ controversial individuals like author Bill Moore, Dr. Steven Greer and more recently Tom Delonge as part of a gradual “acclimatization” program. 

Based on reports from people working with the CSETI Director since I resigned in 1998, it appears as if his ability to attract the phenomenon has waned somewhat from the early years. The same thing reportedly happened to another “Prime Contactee” from Peru, Sixto Paz Wells.

This said, is it possible for Greer to have hoaxed that video? Sure, it is. Is it likely? Probably not. I believe this is so because, among other reasons, his operation is a small (albeit successful) family business. In my opinion he wouldn’t want to spend the money to fake such an event. 

One way to settle this controversy might be to enlist someone like former Navy optical physicist Bruce Maccabee to take a look at the spectroscopy of flares and compare that pattern with the alleged UFOs that Steve Macon Greer claims are flying saucers. I suspect, however, that an authority with the credibility of Dr. Maccabee would not want to get involved with such a controversial person as the CSETI Director. Many advocates of UFO disclosure, including me, now view him as highly divisive figure that repeatedly makes unsubstantiated claims. In addition. more than one commenter on this issue has pointed out that if you speed up the playback on the CSETI video, the lights clearly descend supporting the flare explanation.

Thus, a large part of the UFO community believes that the images shown by CSETI are those of flares, and they take it as just another example of Dr. Greer being a “fraud.” In my judgment, he does exaggerate and exhibits at times shameless self-promotion, but his contributions to the cause of contact and solidarity with UAP associated intelligences are sufficient that perhaps we should strive to have a more balanced view of him. Contact activists should avoid the extremes of both hero-worship and nasty unprincipled attacks.

I was one of the early activists of the CE-5 Initiative. If I had to choose one word to sum up my view of the CSETI Director, it would be “disappointment.” As a former peace and justice activist, in 1992 I had high hopes for the contact network that I helped create under Dr. Greer’s banner. I believed that it would turn into a peace movement with broad social support. Instead, we were locked into an organizational model that was and still is a small financially successful family business selling books, videos and organizing what became high priced fieldwork excursions titled “Ambassador Training.” Steven Greer MD still raises consciousness about certain important issues, but the baggage he carries with that effort is pitiful for me to witness. 

Returning to the controversial video, given CSETI’s involvement with the US Executive Branch Intelligence services (like Bill Moore and Tom Delonge) Dr. Greer is a kind of “agent of influence” for the factions pushing for more openness on this topic. According to the public statements by former Pentagon insiders like Misters Luis Elizondo and Chris Mellon, there are factions within the US Executive Branch that are opposed to the current policy of limited disclosure.  Thus, another possible explanation for the “faked” video comes to mind. I wonder if Steven Greer was set up by a faction opposed to those that have assisted the CSETI Director in the past, and they organized a flare drop as bait for a gullible small business entrepreneur. Such a proposition would be impossible to prove, but it does fit the details of this entire unpleasant affair.