Bert Stubblebine
Major General Albert "Bert" Stubblebine III (1930–2017) was a United States Army intelligence officer who commanded the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) from 1981 to 1984, during which time he oversaw and championed the Army's classified remote viewing program based at Fort Meade, Maryland. After retirement he became a public advocate for alternative medicine and for the investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena, and was one of the senior military figures most closely associated with the institutionalization of psychic espionage as a legitimate intelligence tool.
Military Career
Stubblebine graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and pursued a career in military intelligence. He rose to the rank of Major General and was assigned command of INSCOM — the Army's primary signals intelligence and human intelligence command — in 1981, a post he held until his retirement in 1984. INSCOM at this period encompassed a wide range of intelligence collection activities, including the classified remote viewing unit stationed at Fort Meade.
Oversight of the Remote Viewing Program
During Stubblebine's tenure at INSCOM, the Army's remote viewing program — then designated as part of a broader effort later consolidated under the codename Stargate — operated under his command authority. The unit employed trained military remote viewers who had developed their skills under protocols refined by Ingo Swann and researchers at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Former Army remote viewer Angela Ford described Stubblebine as actively interested in and personally supportive of the program and its personnel: she had sought to join the unit after learning of it through informal channels, and attempted to meet Stubblebine directly to express her interest, bypassing her chain of command.
The remote viewers at Fort Meade anticipated that the program would be shut down upon Stubblebine's retirement in 1984, as the Army funding was tied to his command support: Instead, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer Jack Vorona lobbied Congress to transfer the program rather than dissolve it, and in 1985–1986 the remote viewing unit was transferred to DIA oversight, becoming what was eventually designated the Stargate Project.
Ford later said she believed that Stubblebine personally facilitated her recruitment into the DIA program after his retirement: "I think General Stubblebine told them to hire me."
Remote viewer Joe McMoneagle — the first operational viewer recruited by the program — described Stubblebine's personal recruitment style: Stubblebine would ask potential candidates "what do you think about this?" regarding psychic functioning, and if they indicated any openness, would bring them into the headquarters for training. McMoneagle regarded the self-selection process as flawed, noting that "anybody can remote view" but that the Stubblebine-era recruits were then trained by Ingo Swann's system, "which was never approved by anybody."
When McMoneagle attempted to retire in 1984, Stubblebine "offered me anything I wanted — you want to be a line officer, you want rank, you want money, what is it you want? I can hire you back as a GS-15. Just don't leave." McMoneagle declined and submitted retirement papers, which Stubblebine refused to sign for two months before McMoneagle personally brought the papers to Stubblebine's office and stood over him as he signed them.
Personal Interests in Anomalous Phenomena
Beyond the institutionalized remote viewing program, Stubblebine held personal interests in a range of anomalous phenomena including the ability to pass physical objects through solid matter — reportedly including himself through walls — and the potential for human consciousness to directly affect the physical world. These interests were chronicled in Jon Ronson's 2004 book The Men Who Stare at Goats and the subsequent 2009 film adaptation. Author Jim Marrs and others have cited Stubblebine as an example of a senior military officer whose personal worldview extended far beyond conventional materialist frameworks.
Post-Retirement Advocacy
After retiring from the Army in 1984, Stubblebine remained active in alternative-knowledge circles. He and his wife, physician Rima Laibow, became advocates for health freedom, opposing mandatory vaccination programs and pharmaceutical industry influence over medicine. Stubblebine also publicly challenged the U.S. government's description of the September 11 attacks, stating that he did not believe the physical evidence was consistent with the official explanation — particularly the claim that a commercial aircraft struck the Pentagon — a position that generated significant controversy given his military credentials. He authored or co-authored Winning the War Against Terror and related writings on unconventional approaches to security and medicine.
In May 1992, Stubblebine approached Steven Greer at a CE-5 contact event in Pensacola at which four craft appeared and one was photographed on the front page of the local newspaper. According to Greer, Stubblebine offered him $2 billion if he would abandon his public disclosure work and join Stubblebine's team instead: "He offered me personally in May of 1992 $2 billion if I would join his team. And not do what I have been doing." In a separate account, Greer specified that Stubblebine "had been head of Army Intelligence, Special Forces" and approached him at a time when Greer's CE-5 contact team had successfully tracked and made contact with objects "in the spring of 1992"; Stubblebine's offer reportedly included a board seat within his organization, and when Greer refused, Stubblebine "went behind my back to my wife, tried to convince her to convince me." In another account, Greer specified that the funds Stubblebine offered originated from "a black fund that they had gotten from the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe" and that Greer "would have complete access and control over it" on the condition he join Stubblebine's team. Greer also stated that Stubblebine's "career dealing with UFOs goes back to the sixties," predating his publicly known involvement with the remote viewing program. The encounter indicates Stubblebine maintained an active role in managing UFO disclosure boundaries long after his formal retirement.
Stubblebine died on February 6, 2017, in Costa Rica.