Our Occulted History: Do the Global Elite Conceal Ancient Aliens? (8 page)
By the early twentieth century, the intellectual community had cemented its support around Darwin’s theories. Instead of challenging the status quo, it soon became much more prudent for the aspiring archaeologist or anthropologist to simply ignore or dismiss any unorthodox data. Such attitudes are in full force today.
Did such distortion in the sciences come about by some flaw in the natural evolution of scientific inquiry? The record indicates a conscious effort to derail true scientific investigation by a clique of wealthy and powerful people. “For a brief period during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Rockefeller philanthropies flirted with, and ultimately abandoned, the field of anthropology,” notes anthropologist Kevin Jones-Kern of Bowling Green State University. “During those crucial years and through their modest grants, however, they dramatically affected the course of anthropology.”
The Rockefellers, along with other wealthy and elite American families, such as the Mellons, Carnegies, and Gettys, gained unequaled control over many of the nation’s largest universities both through direct grants and through their foundations. But with the approach of World War II, these funds began to dry up, and certain types of scientists, such as anthropologists, found no jobs available upon graduation. There were few teacher openings and even fewer funded opportunities for fieldwork. Those who did find work with colleges and corporations were limited in what and how they investigated. “Relatively munificent funding for the social sciences continued after this point, but in a more controlled and directed manner. One of the casualties of this restructuring was the already limited Rockefeller support for anthropology,” stated Jones-Kern.
“Although the Rockefeller Foundation gave only half-hearted attention to the field of anthropology, the repercussions of its relatively modest involvement were profound and long-lasting. From sponsorship and publication of classic research studies, to the training of a generation of ethnologists, to the solidification of sturdy university departments that trained future generations of anthropologists, the Rockefeller Foundation greatly affected the course of the field spurned in 1934,” wrote Jones-Kern. “Thus, while Beardsley Ruml, Edmund Day, Sydnor Walker and their peers quietly working at the New York offices of the Rockefeller Foundation are not generally recognized as important figures in the history of the anthropology, perhaps they should be,” he concluded. Of course, if one helps create something, than one has some degree of control over that thing.
Some indication of the power of these families in scientific investigation may be found in the list of founding members and presidents of the National Science Board, the governing board of the National Science Foundation, whose members serve as policy advisers to the U.S. Congress and the president: Chester I. Barnard (Rockefeller Foundation), Detlev W. Bronk (Rockefeller University), Charles Dollard (Carnegie Corporation of New York), and H. Guyford Stever (Carnegie Mellon University).
One example of subtle control over research is the fact that even as the study of human DNA was becoming more established and accepted, there was in academia a subtle persuasion away from incorporating deep DNA research in archaeological studies. Instead, emphasis was placed on using carbon dating and the conventional categorization of artifacts into a predefined evolutionary line, usually beginning two million years or earlier.
In addition, institutions have limited paleoanthropology to the study of hominids at least a million years old. At least two proposals, from Berkeley and Southern Methodist University, for study of more recent fossils were rejected by the National Science Foundation for “lack of adequate scientific merit” due to the paucity of relatively recent fossil hominids.
In 1971, when as an undergraduate Donald Johanson found the bones of Lucy
,
he announced a split in the evolutional chain of ancestors, much to the chagrin of conventional anthropologists, who lambasted him for even offering such a hypothesis at such a young age. This set the stage for more restrained hypotheses in ancient hominid studies, prompting the media to describe any unorthodox ideas on evolution as exotic. Was this by design? Thus the funding of pure science was controlled, and the general public and academia were distracted from any non-Darwinian theories.
It should be noted that in 1974 Johanson graduated from the University of Chicago, a recipient of Rockefeller largesse, with a scholarship from the National Institute of Dental Research that directed him to write a thesis on teeth. It was through grants from the National Science Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation and the National Geographic Society that Johanson was able to carry out his research in Ethiopia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Tanzania.
In the 1800s, huge sphinx-like statues, such as winged bulls and a lion with a human head, were excavated in what was once the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon II, who ruled Mesopotamia from 721 to 705 BC. John D. Rockefeller purchased much of the recovered art and transported it to New York.
The Rockefellers’ interest in art and the social sciences in North America reflect similar interests by the Rothschilds in Europe and the Middle East. An Israeli foundation called Yad Hanadiv, which means “benefactor” in Hebrew, was established in 1958 in honor of Baron Edmond de Rothschild. According to its website, Yad Hanadiv acts “on behalf of a number of Rothschild family philanthropic trusts, continuing a tradition of support for Jewish revival in Palestine begun by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in the second half of the 19th century.” Since the organization’s creation, it has been guided by an advisory committee comprised of members of the Rothschild family. As many as twelve Rothschild Fellowships are awarded each year in the natural, exact, or life sciences and engineering, and up to eight in the humanities and social sciences.
During the past century, the Rothschilds were the largest financial supporters of archaeological digs in Palestine, and the famous Masada excavation of the 1950s was actually called the Edmond de Rothschild Masada Dig. It has been reported from several sources that the Rothschilds believe themselves descended from the Sumerian king Nimrod, the biblical great-grandson of Noah. According to the prestigious genealogical publication
Burke’s Peerage
, one Rothschild child born in 1922 was named Albert Anselm Salomon Nimrod Rothschild.
In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd exploring a cave in Palestine found jars that contained seven scrolls. He sold a few parchments to an antiques dealer for the equivalent of a few dollars. Eventually word of the discovery reached the ears of Hebrew University archaeologist Yigael Yadin, who mortgaged his home and traveled into dangerous Arab areas seeking the scrolls. He managed to secure seven of them for his university, which promptly published them.
Between 1947 and 1960, archaeologists pulled 972 ancient biblical and nonbiblical texts from twelve caves in modern-day Palestine. What many don’t know, however, is that these texts, known together as the Dead Sea Scrolls, reveal the dominating influence of the Rockefellers. Although many of the scrolls have found their way to publications, “not so for the remaining scrolls,” Bible scholar and former intelligence analyst Patricia Eddy has reported. “The Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Palestine soon became involved and managed to acquire the rest of the scrolls from the government of Jordan … who stipulated that no Jewish scholars be allowed access to the ancient Jewish texts. Today, Israel controls the scrolls as a result of overrunning the place where they were stored during the Six Day War of 1967 … these scrolls are largely unpublished today (and) no one knows if all of them have been obtained. There is the possibility that others are in the possession of, or have been destroyed by, the Bedouins.”
Other members of the wealthy elite have exerted their influence over archaeology. For example, Donald Johanson was involved in strange entanglements with the wealthy Getty family. Jon Kalb, a Texas paleontologist who had studied geological depressions in Ethiopia for years and helped acquire funding for Johanson’s research, wrote in his 2001 book,
Adventures in the Bone Trade
, that Ann Getty, who was married to Gordon Getty, heir to the Getty family’s oil fortune, was involved in Johanson’s work. Kalb reported:
Mrs. Getty was then taking courses from [Tim] White [a University of California–Berkeley paleoanthropologist associate of Johanson] at UCB and soon joined [Johanson’s excavation] team. She became an outspoken supporter of White and, during trips to Ethiopia (in her private Boeing 727), was in a position to make large donations to the National Museum, winning influence in the Ethiopian government. Worse for Johanson, Mr. Getty was the IHO’s [The Institute of Human Origins, which funded the majority of Johanson’s project] largest financial donor and a member of its board. In April 1994, Getty abruptly withdrew his support from the institute, charging Johanson with mismanagement of funds and personnel. Because Getty was responsible for half of IHO’s nearly $2 million annual budget, his defection was widely reported in the press, from the
Wall Street Journal
to the
London Times
.
Archaeologists and anthropologists are not the only ones subjected to intense pressure to toe the official science line. In January 2012, the
Wall Street Journal
published a letter from sixteen scientists, including Nobel Prize–winning physicist Ivar Giaever, who resigned from the American Physical Society over its warning that the evidence of global warming is “incontrovertible.” The scientists wrote that “stubborn scientific facts” argue against warming being a man-made phenomenon. They said a growing number of dissenting scientists have serious doubts about the much-publicized and alarmist global-warming message being used to argue for new carbon taxes on the public but are afraid to speak up because of “fear of not being promoted—or worse.”
“They have good reason to worry,” stated the letter. “In 2003, Dr. Chris de Freitas, the editor of the journal
Climate Research
, dared to publish a peer-reviewed article with the politically incorrect (but factually correct) conclusion that the recent warming is not unusual in the context of climate changes over the past thousand years. The international warming establishment quickly mounted a determined campaign to have Dr. de Freitas removed from his editorial job and fired from his university position. Fortunately, Dr. de Freitas was able to keep his university job.”
When Donald Johanson and his team arrived in Ethiopia to set out on his famous archaeological dig, he came merely days after a military coup that ousted Ethiopia’s ruler, Emperor Haile Selassie. When Johanson arrived, he demanded a permit for field investigation from Ethiopian Antiquities Administration director Bekele Negussie, who had previously declined Johanson’s authorization due to politics.
According to Jon Kalb, who later became a competitor of Johanson, Negussie came to his office one day at lunchtime and told him that Johanson had accused Kalb of being a CIA agent and receiving covert money from a CIA front organization known as FORGE. Negussi said Johanson had also alleged that Kalb was connected to the U.S. embassy somehow. The accusations against Kalb plagued him for years, and they eventually led to his expulsion from Ethiopia. He has since discussed how other scientists suffered similar charges. Johanson said Kalb’s charges were baseless although he admitted that he, as well as many other scientists in foreign lands, was sometimes questioned about the national affairs of other countries by officials of the U.S. Government.
Was Kalb actually a CIA agent, as per Johanson’s accusation? Or were any other members covertly working for the agency? It is possible the CIA somehow was involved with the archaeological community to gain access to many otherwise impenetrable parts of the world. In fact, accusations of CIA involvement among archaeologists and anthropologists were not totally without merit, according to a government committee. The circuitously named Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, called the Church Committee after its chairman, Democratic senator Frank Church, stated in a 1976 report that the CIA had penetrated a large contingent of American academia:
The CIA is now using several hundred American academics, who in addition to providing leads and, on occasion, making introductions for intelligence purposes, occasionally write books and other material to be used for propaganda purposes abroad.” These academics are located in over 100 American colleges, universities, and related institutes. At the majority of institutions, no one other than the individual concerned is aware of the CIA link. At the others, at least one university official is aware of the operational use made of academics on his campus. In addition, there are several American academics abroad who serve operational purposes, primarily the collection of intelligence. … Although the numbers are not as great today as in 1966, there are no prohibitions to prevent an increase in the operational use of academics.
The report went on to state that the Church Committee was “disturbed” by the CIA’s lack of appreciation for the dangers it caused for the academics and institutions involved in its operations.
Such collusion between human sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the CIA continues even today. In 2004, as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained a memorandum of understanding between the NSF and the CIA discussing joint funding in mathematics and the physical sciences. This was placed under the rubric of combating terrorism.
It can be rationalized that the CIA might involve itself in scientific activities in order to enhance national security. But could its involvement with science have a more controlling purpose, such as protecting the official narrative of our species’s genesis?
Several researchers place the CIA in the center of a money merry-go-round that begins with institutions of higher learning and foundations, then spins off into conferences, charitable and educational associations, and student groups and on into journalism and the mass media.