Image: Creative Commons (CC)/Amazon/Mirage Men
Project Beta, launched by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) in the late '70s, was an infiltration and misinformation operation that targeted Paul Bennewitz, a scientist who owned a very lucrative company under contract with the USAF to supply electronic equipment. In a fascinating yet harrowing account, Mr. Bennewitz, who after eavesdropping into the Air Force and NSA communications at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, became convinced that UFOs piloted by extraterrestrials entities were visiting the military base, made the detrimental decision to alert the USAF of his findings - something that would eventually cost him dearly.
Soon after raising the alien alarm, Mr. Bennewitz was put under heavy surveillance by both the USAF and the NSA, who waged a psychological war on him using fabricated evidence of alien and UFO contact and outright lies in order to divert him from his Kirtland AFB espionage activities, which were exposing secret, though not alien-related programs being conducted at the base.