Project Titan

At this point, it is necessary to make a procedural clarification. Perhaps a tedious one, but one that is necessary in order to correctly frame the entire situation. It is widely believed that the Grenada proposal’s examination by the UN had been suspended due to the coup that ousted Gairy’s government in March 1979. The Grenada proposal would have thus since then remained “dormant”. Any interested member state could have it ‘resurrected’ in order to resubmit it on its own initiative.

With this last act the complete cycle of presentation, discussion and vote was concluded. From a formal point of view nothing was left unfinished.

In any case, as we know from historical documents, Sir Gairy’s action towards the UN would not have remained limited to Decision 33/426. As such, the decision was somehow accepted by Gairy as a temporary stopgap. He was nonetheless happy with ‘keeping the attention alive on the subject’ for the moment. Sir Gairy’s government was then overthrown in March 1979 while he was in New York to develop the next steps of his pro-UFO initiative. Bishop’s coup put an end, not only to Sir Gairy’s government, but also to his pro-UFO UN initiative, which came to a standstill, as no other UN member country showed any interest in the matter.

Therefore, if there has been anything left unfinished in Grenada’s general action towards the UN, something that has remained “hanging”, unrealized, that is the original spirit of the proposal: to elevate the UFO/UAP discourse to its proper level, i.e., the international public level. It is therefore from the original spirit of the initiative where we must start if one wants to revive it in the appropriate way. As for Decision 33/426, in itself, it is factually useless and can be held as a historical reference.

The Distant Genesis Of Project Titan

It was Dr. Roberto Pinotti, the current President of the Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN) and more recently of ICER, a fine connoisseur of the Grenada initiative, who seriously intends to revive its spirit, that realised a couple of decades ago already that the Republic of San Marino had the right characteristics to host a world-class conference on the UAP/UFO phenomenon. He knew this small republic very well due to personal reasons and soon realised that its neutrality, plus its full UN membership, made the tiny and ancient Republic an ideal candidate to revive the spirit of Sir Gairy’s initiative.

But as it was for the Republic of Grenada in 1978, in the 90s the time was not ripe for San Marino to engage the UN on this issue. That was despite several attempts by Pinotti; however, the idea never went beyond the stage of a verbal proposal.

Then came that fateful date of December 16, 2017, when the New York Times and Politico made known to the public the existence of the AATIP program, starting the process of disclosure, i.e., the removal of the UFO secret, which is still ongoing.

Thus, in the spring of 2019, when the process had already demonstrated that it was not a fatuous fire, and well aware of the historical precedents at the UN and of the previous attempts of Dr. Pinotti, this writer realized that the time was finally ripe to engage with San Marino again.

The need to start off on the right foot immediately became apparent.
It was necessary to have a clear objective right from the start, that of putting on paper an organic and well-structured proposal that constituted a precise plan of action, a precise business plan to propose to the government of the Republic of San Marino. It was also evident that such an undertaking would imply for the CUN the need to provide support to the authorities of San Marino in terms of ufological, procedural and media issues. It was not a simple task, as this would require the deployment of quite a considerable range of resources. Very soon, it became clear that a collaboration with another body was essential. Something easier said than done, as this other body had to be very qualified. Fortunately, at that time there was an idea that was consolidating, and that (after a long gestation) would have led to the formation of ICER, the International Coalition for Extraterrestrial Research. But ICER had to become an established reality first and in the spring of 2021, although this was already decided, it was not yet known when this would happen.

As if that were not enough, another problem introduced a further factor of uncertainty. It had already been decided that the presentation of Project Titan to the San Marino government would coincide with the 30th edition of the International UFO Symposium organized by the CUN in San Marino, an unmissable and highly symbolic occasion. But the volatility of the situation caused by Covid-19 had made it very difficult to set any firm date for the Symposium in 2021.
Moreover, news from the San Marino side was not good: it seemed that the government was no longer willing to sponsor the CUN Symposium.

After many months spent in uncertainty, at a certain point, the wind returned to swell the Project’s sails. In a short time around middle 2021, it was possible to find a local sponsorship in San Marino, a useful date for the Symposium and a suitable, international ufological partner with which to join forces to support San Marino: ICER, which became a reality towards the end of May 2021.

So it was that in a few years, after patient examinations of official documents, version after version, successive refinements, long periods of uncertainty, setbacks and restarts, in the early days of September 2021, this writer succeeded in finalizing the final version of that Project, which bears the name of Titano, the mount that is the very symbol of the most serene Republic of San Marino.
It is important to note here that this Project emanates directly from the original spirit of the Grenada proposal. Credit for this fully goes to Dr Roberto Pinotti, who already more than twenty years ago was clear about the important role that the Republic of San Marino could play in the process of bringing the UAP/UFO phenomenon to the attention of mankind’s highest forum. A process for which this writer has only looked for ways to make it practically feasible.

The Documents That Compose The Project

The Project consists of three documents: the Project itself, the Presentation for the San Marino government authorities and the Memorandum of Understanding between the parties for its concrete implementation.

The Project

The qualifying point of the Project envisages that the government of San Marino submits to the UN Secretary-General Office a proposal for the creation within the UN structure of an office in charge of the organisation of a periodical international conference to assess, review and facilitate studies and research on the UAP/UFO phenomenon, to be held in San Marino.

In the presentation are also mentioned the great importance for scientific progress in general and for the specific knowledge on the UFO/UAP phenomenon, still essentially mysterious, as well as the high potential of important scientific and technological fallouts that a genuine international collaboration can bring.

The presentation also takes into due consideration the financial aspect, underlining the fact that commitment of the proposed initiative for the Republic would be extremely limited, if not virtually null.

The presentation also highlights that the choice of the Republic of San Marino is definitely appropriate for this initiative. The tiny and ancient Republic is in fact not unfamiliar with the subject of UAP, as it has been hosting for some decades now the International Symposium on UFOs and related phenomena organized by the CUN, now in its thirtieth edition. The initiative of Project Titan for a world-class conference under the aegis of the UN, therefore, represents a natural evolution of this long-standing, successful and consolidated activity.

Last but not least, the presentation underlines the fact that the Republic’s centuries-old neutrality, a well-deserved source of national pride, makes it the ideal location to host a world-class forum such as the one proposed.
The neutrality of San Marino can indeed facilitate the meeting of geographically and geopolitically diversified cultures, knowledge and experiences. This would greatly help promote the exchange and discussion of experiences on the UAP/UFO phenomenon hitherto confined within national borders, which once publicly shared could significantly enrich the knowledge on UAP/UFO phenomenology for the benefit of science and humanity.

The Memorandum Of Understanding

Finally, the Memorandum of Understanding is the document whereby the parties, i.e. the Government of San Marino, ICER and CUN, express their joint will to practically implement the Project according to what is contained in its text.

The signing of the protocol sanctions the will of the parties to concretely implement the Project and formally starts its practical implementation.

Conclusion

If the San Marino government accepts ICER and CUN’s proposal of Project Titan, the enchanting, neutral setting of San Marino City and its Mount Titano, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites, could truly become the new “Geneva of UFOs”.

Developments

September 13, 2021,

The day after the closure of the 30^th edition of the International Symposium on UAP/UFO phenomenology organized by the Centro Ufologico Nazionale in San Marino, a delegation composed by Roberto Pinotti, President of CUN and ICER, Gary Heseltine, Vice President of ICER and this writer, responsible for international contacts of CUN as well as ICER’s National Representative for Italy, was received at Palazzo Pubblico (the Palace of Government) by San Marino’s Secretary of State for Education and Culture, Mr. Andrea Belluzzi.

The purpose of this visit was to illustrate and officially submit Project Titan to the government of San Marino.

After an introduction by Mr. Pinotti, Secretary Belluzzi was briefed by this writer on the most important characteristics of the Project, its origins, scope and the importance and benefits that San Marino could derive from it. He also received multiple copies of the documents that compose the Project.

Secretary Belluzzi assured the ICER-CUN delegation that he would have referred to his colleagues of the Consiglio di Stato (the government of San Marino) on the Project.

December 12, 2021

Dr. Roberto Pinotti and Dr. Augusto Casali were received by the Capitani Reggenti, the two Heads of State of the Republic of San Marino. In the course of  a cordial meeting that lasted over an hour, they presented Project Titan to the highest authorities of the Republic.

Dr. Augusto Casali is a long-time San Marino politician, and he is the person to whom the credit goes for having allowed over thirty years ago, when he was Minister of Tourism, the first of the successful series of International Symposia on Unidentified Flying Objects organized by the Centro Ufologico Nazionale under the aegis of the government of San Marino.