Charles Bowsher audit claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
.jpg)
| Date | 7 August 2004 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Jacques Vallée, Jim Westwood, Harold Puthoff |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 157 |
| Year | 2004 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2004 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
According to Jacques Vallée's published journals, defence analyst James T. Westwood told Vallée in 2004 that former U.S. Comptroller General Charles Bowsher had come across a crashed-UFO program while auditing classified projects. Vallée dated the diary entry 24 September 2004.[1]
The claim
As summarised by researcher Keith Basterfield, Vallée described this as a "third official trail" into a secret UFO program. Westwood said Bowsher had found a program, known to only a handful of officials, concerning an exotic non-Earthly vehicle. In 1984–85 he had uncovered a special access program that seemed to break classification rules; reviewers considered referring it to the Justice Department, but a powerful figure at the Defense Department stopped it. Vallée did not say who had told Westwood.[1]
Westwood
Westwood was a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander who wrote many articles on the Soviet navy for the Naval War College Review between 1970 and 1988, and later worked as a defence analyst and consultant. Vallée's notes say he had served in a classified unit that analysed Soviet documents and designed fake ones for disinformation.[1]
Bowsher
Bowsher (1931–2022) was the sixth Comptroller General, heading the General Accounting Office from October 1981 to September 1996, after serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for financial management. He never spoke publicly about any UFO program.[2]
The GAO and Roswell
Bowsher's GAO did look into Roswell. After an October 1993 meeting between Bowsher and Rep. Steven Schiff of New Mexico, the GAO agreed to search for records on the 1947 incident, as the Washington Post reported in January 1994.[3]
Assessment
The audit claim is second-hand at best, passed from an unnamed source to Westwood to Vallée, and has not been confirmed.[1]
People and topics
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Jim Westwood — Former CIA consultant who studied the MJ-12 papers.
- General Accounting Office — The investigative arm of Congress.
- Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
On the Timeline
- Kit Green on Basiago's claims (7 August 2004) — Kit Green tells Vallée that Basiago's time-travel claims are exaggerated.
- Bill Cooper and Behold a Pale Horse (2004) — Bill Cooper claims underground bases host cooperation between aliens and humans.
See every 2004 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Keith Basterfield, "James (Jim) T. Westwood — some information", UFOs – scientific research (June 2023) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Charles A. Bowsher — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- William Claiborne, "GAO turns to alien turf in probe", Washington Post (14 Jan 1994), via Patrick Gross · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- amazon.com · amazon.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.