Nick Cook, UFOs and the Nazi "Black World" - Richard's Room 101

So far in this column, we have explored the worlds of conspiracy theory and cult sci-fi, so in this edition of Room 101 we are going to, at last, dive into the strange realm of UFOs (or, at least, a closely related topic) with a piece on the work of military "black projects" expert Nick Cook. 

Nick Cook is a British defence journalist and author of the excellent non-fiction book The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology (2001). A serious and careful investigator, Cook has been associated with Jane's Defence Weekly (the world's leading international defence journal) since 1987, first as their Aviation Editor and now as their Aerospace Consultant. Refreshingly, Cook takes a non-judgmental stance towards UFOs and paranormal phenomena, and consequently cannot be considered either a sceptic or a believer.

I first became aware of Cook's work when I saw a documentary called Billion Dollar Secret, in which he narrated and appeared. The documentary detailed Cook's investigations of UFOs and so-called "black projects" (unacknowledged military/defence programmes) in the United States. Familiar examples of US military aircraft developed as "black projects," that have since gone "white," are the F-117 stealth fighter and B-2 stealth bomber.

In Billion Dollar Secret, Cook makes a fairly strong case for his theory that some UFO reports in the American Southwest could be explained by deeply classified "black" aircraft and super advanced technology, perhaps as one interviewee suggests: "fifty years ahead of anything you can imagine." Cook points out that the US Defence Department's "black budget" (money used to fund expenditures it does not want to disclose publicly) has been estimated to be about $30 billion annually, more than enough for the "black world" to build their own UFOs. Further, on September 10, 2001, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld admitted to the media that amazingly: "According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions."

With that kind of money at the US Defence Department's disposal, almost anything becomes feasible, even, as Nick Cook suggests in his book, ultra-secret antigravity aircraft. The idea that the US military could have developed some new form of advanced technology in secret, such as antigravity, may sound fantastic, but it is not that unlikely when you consider that it has already happened once with stealth technology.

When stealth aircraft were still denied to exist and even thought impossible by most people, F-117 stealth fighters were already flying over the American Southwest. According to Cook's The Hunt for Zero Point, one even crashed at Bakersfield, California in 1986, two years before they were unveiled to the public. So the US military may well have other denied aircraft in the sky today and perhaps similar crashes of "black" military projects could explain some of the many alleged UFO crashes over the last sixty years. In Cook's second documentary UFOs: The Secret Evidence, he speculates that the famous Roswell UFO incident could be such a case.

 It is Cook's book and second documentary that really deserves our attention. In these, Cook explored what is known in the defence business as "The Legend," that the Nazis had invented flying saucers in the dying days of the Second World War and that, after the war, the Allies captured them. 

On the face of it at least, "The Legend" does provide a beautiful and down to Earth explanation for the origins of UFOs. We do know that the Nazis were perhaps decades ahead of the Allies in terms of jet aircraft and rocket weaponry, and that, after the war, the Allies did capture a great deal of technology and personnel from Germany (for instance V-2 rockets and Wernher von Braun). We also know that the Nazis did have some exotic designs and ideas for aircraft and that, during the war, some very mysterious aerial phenomena were seen in the skies over Europe, such as the famous foo fighters. Further, soon after the captured German scientists arrived in the American Southwest after the war to work, the modern UFO era began and, in July 1947, a flying saucer allegedly crashed near Roswell, New Mexico.

However, there are two big problems with "The Legend" as an explanation for the origins of UFOs. The first is that unknown aerial phenomena have been seen in the skies throughout all of human history, going right back to even Biblical times, not just since the Second World War. The second issue is that "The Legend" is just that: a legend or myth. There is no hard evidence that proves that the Nazis invented flying saucers or that the Allies captured them. 

However, as Cook discovers during his investigations, the Nazis were probably up to something strange towards the end of the war, perhaps something so significant and potentially dangerous that it is still being covered up today, over sixty years later. In The Hunt for Zero Point, Cook examines accounts and later, in UFOs: The Secret Evidence, he visits the alleged test site of a purported Nazi device, mysteriously known simply as "The Bell." 

"The Bell" was allegedly used in a secret antigravity experiment carried out by SS scientists near the village of Ludwikowice in southern Poland. The strange Nazi device was apparently extremely dangerous, supposedly causing sickness, mutation and even death to living things exposed to the device.

It should be stressed here that we cannot be sure whether "The Bell" really had anything to do with antigravity research or even that the device actually ever existed. However, the Nazis were definitely working on something near Ludwikowice, a strange abandoned test rig still stands there even today. Also, in Cook's book, a scientist contact takes "The Bell" seriously enough to suggest that it was perhaps a torsion field generator and that the Nazis may have been attempting to use it as some kind of time machine.

 

Whatever happened to "The Bell" (if it ever existed) we do not know, but Cook speculates in his book that its technology somehow fell into the hands of the US military after the war, perhaps as part of some deal made with the mysterious SS General Hans Kammler. It is certainly very suspicious that despite being put in charge of the V-2 missile programme and eventually all German aerospace programmes by the end of the war, Kammler mysteriously just disappeared, not just from the physical world but from most history books also. Could Kammler have been taken to the United States with the German scientists as part of the now-infamous Operation Paperclip?

 

Did the Nazis crack antigravity and pass on the secret to the US military after the war? 

Are some UFOs simply "black" antigravity aircraft?

Cook's conclusion is a careful "maybe." The Nazis were probably up to something strange towards the end of the war. However, all we know for certain is that after the war a number of German scientists were brought to the US to work on advanced aerospace programmes and that, since then, we have experienced an increase in sightings of strange objects seen in American skies, particularly in the American Southwest where these scientists worked. It could all just be a coincidence, but I somehow doubt it.

 However, there is a larger issue here than whether some UFOs could be "black projects" or not. The bigger concern is that some of the German scientists that were brought to the United States, and helped build the "black world" of unacknowledged military/defence programmes, were ardent Nazis. This means that it is entirely likely that the "black world" has inherited some of its parents' Nazi characteristics, and if this is the case, the fact that the "black world" has been fed with billions of American dollars over the years becomes even more worrisome. Perhaps it is about time Americans started asking what their money is being spent on and did away with the "black world."