Having observed that the Service-to-Self aliens they were in contact with could do marvelous things, the secret government had no doubt that they could also travel through time. That this capacity is strictly regulated by the Council of Worlds and is almost without exception never granted to the Service- to-Self crowd when they request authorization was, of course, not mentioned. In concert with density shifting experiments in the Philadelphia Experiments, time travel was attempted. This was an utter failure, with the human scientists tinkering with their machines under instructions received from the Service-to-Self aliens, and suffering under the wrath of generals who were sure that the project was only failing because of their incompetence. After a time, the project was put on hold, due more to emotional and mental exhaustion than any change in plans.
Eventually, the generals involved realized that those in the Service-to-Self lie freely and without conscience, and abandoned the project altogether. Nonetheless, rumors abound, and due to the sensational nature of the project and the power that would accrue to those who might succeed, the rumors and interest in the Montauk experiment are unlikely to die.