Doty on Serpo believers (2020)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 2 February 2020 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic) |
| People | Richard Doty |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 195 |
| Year | 2020 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2020 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
Richard Doty, the former Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) agent known for feeding disinformation to UFO researchers in the 1980s, reportedly said in 2020 that some current and former Defense Intelligence Agency personnel believed parts of the "Project Serpo" story. The claim circulated on social media and cannot be checked.[1][2]
Doty
In the early 1980s Doty, then an AFOSI special agent at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, was involved in an operation that fed false information to Albuquerque businessman Paul Bennewitz, who believed he was intercepting alien signals. Doty later admitted taking part in deception efforts, as described in the 2010 book and 2013 documentary Mirage Men. He has also been linked to the Majestic 12 documents. In 1983 he offered filmmaker Linda Moulton Howe Air Force records of an alien exchange programme for an HBO documentary, then backed out without providing anything.[2][3]
Project Serpo
Serpo is the story of a supposed exchange programme in which twelve U.S. military personnel travelled to a planet in the Zeta Reticuli system between 1965 and 1978, after an alien survived a crash near Roswell. It emerged in a series of anonymous emails to an online UFO list run by Victor Martinez in 2005. Accounts vary considerably, there is no physical evidence, and critics have suggested the posts may have been promotion for a book connected to Doty; even the story's leading promoter, Bill Ryan, later said the releases contained disinformation.[2]
Assessment
Given Doty's admitted role in deception and the hoax-like character of Serpo, his reported remarks about believers inside the DIA are widely treated as unreliable. The story's persistence nonetheless shows how disinformation of the 1980s continued to circulate decades later.[1][2][3]
People and topics
- Richard Doty — Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent who fed disinformation to UFO researchers in the 1980s.
- Defense Intelligence Agency — The Pentagon's military intelligence agency, which ran AAWSAP.
- Air Force Office of Special Investigations — The Air Force's criminal investigation and counterintelligence agency.
- Disinformation — False information spread deliberately to mislead.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Project Serpo — Project Serpo
On the Timeline
- Noel Longuemare on the Wilson notes (29 November 2019) — A former Pentagon acquisitions official describes how secret programs were overseen.
- Podkletnov gold-layer claim (2020) (4 February 2020) — Russian engineer Eugene Podkletnov claims an effect resembling gravity modification.
See every 2020 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Post reporting Doty's 2020 remarks (Twitter/X) · twitter.com · archived copy
- Project Serpo — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Paul Bennewitz — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Paul Bennewitz — Wikipedia · wikipedia.com · archived copy
- Mirage Men (2013 documentary) — Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- Greg Bishop, Project Beta (2005) · goodreads.com · archived copy
- The Bennewitz affair · lennyflatley.substack.com · archived copy
- Mirage Men and the architecture of UAP disinformation · newspaceeconomy.ca · archived copy
- Project Beta — Anomaly Archives · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- The Paul Bennewitz affair — Michael Heiser · drmsh.com · archived copy
- twitter.com · twitter.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Richard Doty — 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.
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