The limits of libertarianism?

By BILLY COX

On Jan. 22, 1958, just as retired Marine Corps major and UFO investigator Donald Keyhoe prepared to deliver some unscripted remarks on a network TV show called “Armstrong Circle Theater,” CBS pulled the audio plug.

Keyhoe announced that a congressional committee was evaluating evidence which, if made public, “will absolutely prove that the UFOs are machines under intelligent control.” But viewers never heard the message, because CBS had worked out a prearranged deal with the Air Force. As Herbert A. Carlborg, CBS director of editing, later explained, “This program had been carefully cleared for security reasons.”

Among the millions of American eyewitnesses to this ripoff of the public trust was a teenager named Dom Armentano. “It was censorship, on live television,” he recalls.

At age 67, retired in Florida, Armentano is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Hartford, where he taught for 31 years. He’s also an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, Armentano is a frequent contributor to the libertarian webmag LewRockwell.com. His recent post, "Economic Outlook 2008: Darkening Clouds," forecasts a recession.

But thanks to his ongoing curiosity about what happened on CBS 50 years ago, Armentano occasionally revisits The Great Taboo. This week, in a column for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, Armentano argued “UFOs are a legitimate public policy concern” concealed by “a deliberate half-century of deception.”

If only he could generate a buzz with Washington policy wonks . . .

“It can’t be done,” Armentano says by phone in Vero Beach. “UFOs are a quick way to kill a conversation. You can’t even broach it with golfing buddies. It’s too complex; you’ve got to do a lot of research. It’s like somebody asking my views about antitrust (issues), which is my field. I can only say, ‘Have you got three or four days?’ ”

Armentano can’t even get LewRockwell.com to run his UFO columns. “This is important. This is the biggest news story of all time, but Lew will not print anything about it,” says Armentano. “I think he thinks he’s trying to save me from myself.”

Which is disappointing, given that Webster’s New World Dictionary defines libertarian as “a person who believes in the doctrine of the freedom of the will” and/or “full individual freedom of thought, expression, and action.” If Armentano’s contentions about Rockwell’s fear of UFO material is accurate, the Web site’s assertions of its “deep suspicion of power” and “critical attitude toward the status quo” are silly bloviations.

Rockwell, a former congressional chief of staff to Ron Paul, has not responded to De Void’s query for clarification.