The Case of S T Nikos
Albert K Bender
Within a short time of the start of the post-War UFO stir a new and frightening feature emerged. Albert K Bender of Bridgeport, Connecticut, ran an organisation he called the International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB). The mouthpiece of the organisation was a magazine called Space Review, and in October 1953 Bender wrote to his startled readers that he knew the answer to the UFO mystery but could not publish it because of orders from a higher source He also urged those working on flying saucer investigations to be very cautious. That was the last issue of Space Review. Bender closed the magazine and closed down the IFSB.
Bender remained mainly tight lipped but eventually revealed a little more to UFOlogist, Gray Barker, who got some publicity out of it for a while. Bender had developed a theory of the origin of flying saucers and wrote to a trusted friend outlining his idea. In September 1953 Bender received some visitors, three men dressed in black suits, members of the United States Government. They had a copy of the letter Bender had sent and told him he had correctly arrived at the answer to the mystery of the UFOs. They confirmed his theory in essence and threatened him with imprisonment if he ever revealed any of it. Bender was amazed but inclined to stand his ground, but they used the old psychological techniques of the third degree on him, one threatening, one cajoling and sympathetic and a third one mainly watching intently and with menace.
Friends of Bender said the experience seriously affected him. He was manifestly scared out of his wits, became ill, claimed he was being controlled and eventually wrote an account of the whole business that was plainly fantastic—evidently an attempt to muddy the water. He gave up all contact with UFOs and UFOlogists and became a motel owner.
In earlier more lucid accounts Bender had kept tight-lipped but had explained that the world would change dramatically when the secret of the UFOs came out. Scientific and political beliefs would be ruined. The implication seemed to be that the very foundations of human society would be shattered.
Since the original experience of Albert Bender, which we have no reason to doubt, the Men-in-Black (MIBs) have become part of American folklore, with all the abilities of ghosts and goblins, largely generated by one or two unscrupulous journalists, keen to make a buck or two. The truth seems to be that these men are some sort of secret-service men intent on keeping something quiet, or if exposure is inevitable, providing plenty of counter information and misinformation to cloud the picture.
If this is the case then the US and perhaps other governments are in a conspiracy to cover up certain facts that they imagine might be distasteful to the general public. These facts are explicable by an unknown theory of UFOs and presumably concern these UFOs. Their consequences are nothing short of the end of human civilisation.
Michaela Magi Griffiths, Bloomsbury, September, 1993
© Copyright AskWhy! Publications 1997. Quote by all means but credit this source.
Moses and Exodus
