SKEPTICS UFO NEWSLETTER By Philip J. Klass | 404 "N" St. SW. Washington DC 20024 | SUN #55 | Jan. 1999 Copyright 1999 Dr. Robert Wood Emerges As New Promoter Of MJ-12 Authenticity, Endorses Recent Batch Of Flawed Documents From Secretive Source Dr. Robert M. Wood, a respected, long-time engineer/scientist with McDonnell Douglas until his retirement in 1993, has emerged as a new promoter of MJ-12 -- an (alleged) super-Top-Secret U.S. government UFO agency. He and son Ryan -- a computer specialist -- strongly endorsed the authenticity of the original MJ-12 papers released in 1987 by William L. Moore, Jaime Shandera and Stanton Friedman as well as a new batch of obviously flawed MJ-12 documents. Their endorsement came in their paper titled "Cosmic Watergate: New Evidence of Retrieved UFOs," presented at a UFO conference held in North Haven, Conn., on Oct. 10-11. Their conference paper focused on about 10 "Top Secret" documents obtained from a little-known California researcher named Timothy Cooper. Cooper claims the "new" MJ-12 papers were left in his mailbox by a secretive source named Thomas Cantwheel. On Nov. 30, these Cooper/Cantwheel/Wood MJ-12 documents were hailed by a respected Silicon Valley businessman -- Joseph P. Firmage -- in a two-page press release on the Internet which carried the headline: "STUNNING TOP SECRET MILITARY DOCUMENTS PUBLISHED ON INTERNET REVEALING RECOVERY OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL VEHICLES AND BODIES DURING TRUMAN ADMINISTRATION." Copies of the new (and original) MJ-12 papers, which Firmage said had been authenticated by Dr. Robert M. Wood, were being sent to major U.S. news media organizations. According to Firmage, "Scientists and the media who reject this claim, particularly in the face of this most recent evidence, are ignoring the single most important event to confront humanity in perhaps 2,000 years." There was no mention of the fact that Stanton Friedman had earlier investigated some of Cooper's MJ-12 documents and concluded that they were COUNTERFEIT, and that this was known to Dr. Wood. In late 1992, Friedman received a call from Cooper, who claimed to have found three "new" MJ-12 documents in his mailbox. Friedman, who lives in Eastern Canada, suggested that Cooper show the documents to his good friend Robert Wood, who lives in Southern California. Cooper subsequently provided copies of the three new documents to Friedman for his analysis, as Friedman reports in his book "Top Secret/MAJIC," p. 144: "The appearance of the documents was exciting because they were the first Majestic-related documents to surface since the Cutler-Twining memo [which Moore and Shandera claim they found in the National Archives] in 1985." Friedman said he received two more documents from Cooper several weeks later. One of the documents -- whose authenticity Friedman set out to investigate -- purports to be a memo to President Truman from Rear Adm. Hillenkoetter (who allegedly headed MJ-12), dated "February 1948." Friedman noted in his book that this "document was extremely poorly reproduced, and Tim [Cooper] was initially reluctant to pass it on for fear he would be accused of forging it." (Emphasis added.) Friedman (seemingly) was not disturbed by the fact that the memo did not cite a specific date in February, but indicated that he was mildly suspicious initially about some of the memo's contents. There were several other details which should have aroused Friedman's suspicions, but did not. For example, the centerpiece of the MJ-12 papers made public in 1987 was what purported to be a November 1952 briefing document for President-elect Eisenhower -- presumably prepared by Hillenkoetter -- which listed the members of MJ-12. Skeptics earlier pointed out that the list showed "Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter" which falsely indicated he was a four-star Skeptics UFO Newsletter -2- Jan. 1999 admiral. Additionally, as SUN's editor pointed out to Friedman, Hillenkoetter did not use his first name (Roscoe) in his business letters but instead used his initials -- "R.H." Both of these "flaws" in the Eisenhower briefing document released in 1987 were not repeated in the "Hillenkoetter memo" that Friedman later received from Cooper. It showed "R.H. Hillenkoetter, Rear Adm. USN." However, the hoaxer who wrote the "February 1948 memo" unwittingly committed a significant error. In the lower-left corner the memo listed the agencies which (allegedly) received copies of the memo. This list included "USAFOSI." In February 1948, when the memo allegedly was written, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations DID NOT EXIST. It was not created until Aug. 1, 1948, and was never called USAFOSI. One of the documents which Cooper later sent to Friedman, and which Robert Wood endorsed, purported to be a Top Secret/Eyes Only memo, signed by President Truman on July 9, 1947, which directed Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining to "proceed to the White Sands Proving Ground Command Center without delay for the purpose of making an appraisal of the reported unidentified objects being kept there.... Before going to White Sands you will communicate with General Eisenhower to ascertain whether he desires you to proceed via Kirtland AAF." On July 9, Twining already was at Kirtland AAF, attending a course on nuclear weapons for General Officers. Wood Claims Discrepancies Show Cooper Documents Are Authentic During Dr. Wood's talk in Connecticut he admitted that there are factual discrepancies in Cooper's documents but he claimed that these "tend to indicate authenticity instead of lack of authenticity. Hoaxers generally try to make sure they are perfect." One of the several discrepancies mentioned by Wood between the original (alleged) Nov. 18, 1952, briefing document for President-elect Eisenhower and the contents of the documents from Cooper was that the Eisenhower briefing document said that four ET bodies had been recovered from the crashed saucer while two of Cooper's documents said there were five bodies. Wood offered the following possible explanation: "The people who wrote the document didn't necessarily put in everything that was factually true. There might have been five recovered aliens and one of them was still alive and they didn't want to tell Eisenhower... that we really had an alive guy [ET]." An even more significant discrepancy is that the Eisenhower Briefing Document, allegedly written on Nov. 18, 1952, states that "On 07 July, 1947, a secret operation was begun to assure recovery of the wreckage of this object [singular] for scientific study." According to the Eisenhower briefing document, "On 06 December, 1950, a second object, probably of similar origin, impacted the earth at high speed in the El Indio-Guerrero area of the Texas-Mexican border..." (Emphasis added.) However, one of the Cooper/Cantwheel documents purports to be a July 9, 1947, report by the Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit [IPU] which (allegedly) had been dispatched to New Mexico to recover the two crashed UFOs. This document reports "The extraordinary recovery of fallen airborne objects [plural] in the state of New Mexico, between 4 July - 6 July 1947..." Contemporary media accounts show that rancher Mac Brazel did not come to Roswell to report finding the unusual debris until July 7. The Cooper document claims that "radar stations in east Texas and White Sands Proving Ground, N.M. tracked two unidentified aircraft unitl (sic) both dropped off radar. Two crash sites have been located.... Site LZ-1 was located at a ranch near Corona, approximately 75 miles northwest of the town of Roswell. Site LZ-2 was located approximately 20 miles southwest of the town of Socorro... [near] Oscura Peak." This July 9, 1947, document does not mention any other crashed-saucer recovery in New Mexico at that time. However, another of the Cooper/Cantwheel documents, allegedly written by Hillenkoetter on Sept. 19, 1947, refers to "a subsequent capture of another similar craft 30 miles east of the Army's Alamogordo Army Air Field on 5 July 1947..." Skeptics UFO Newsletter -3- Jan. 1999 IPU's July 9 report said: "Personnel were mainly interested in LZ-2 [Oscura Peak] as this site contained the majority of structural detail of the craft's airframe, propulsion and navigation technology. The recovery of five bodies in a damaged escape cylinder, precluded (sic) an investigation at LZ-1 [Corona].... First reports indicated the first crash investigators from Roswell AAF [thought] that LZ-1 was the remains of a AAF top secret MOGUL balloon project. When scientists from Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory arrived to inspect LZ-2, it became apparent to all concerned that what had crashed in the desert was something out of this world." (Emphasis added.) CURIOUS "COINCIDENCES" AND DISCREPANCIES * For a document counterfeiter, the first public mention that the debris discovered by rancher Brazel was related to the once Top Secret Project Mogul balloon program came in mid-1994 with publication of Karl Pflock's report "Roswell In Perspective." The USAF's initial Roswell report, issued and widely publicized in Sept. 1994, confirmed the Project Mogul connection. According to a Cooper-written notation on this IPU document, he (allegedly) received it on July 16, 1995, more than a year after Pflock first disclosed Project Mogul. * If the IPU document were authentic, it shows that as of July 9, 1947, the IPU, headed by Lt. Gen. Twining, which had recovered the crashed saucer from the vicinity of Socorro and the five bodies in an escape capsule near Corona, recognized that they were extraterrestrial. Yet more than two months later, the (alleged) Hillenkoetter memo states that the Army, Navy and Air Force conclude only that "the craft and wreckage are not of U.S. manufacture." * The Cooper/Cantwheel document titled "1st Annual Report" on the "Majestic Twelve Project" bears no date but refers to events that occurred as late as May, 1951. Seemingly, more than three years elapsed after MJ-12 was created before it got around to writing its "1st Annual Report." According to this document, MJ-12 was headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush, not Hillenkoetter, and there were 14 members including Bush -- not twelve. One page of the report is not only stamped "Top Secret" and "For Official Use Only," but also bears an odd stamp: "NOT FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION" which is enclosed in quotation marks. Wood Withholds Friedman-Discovered Evidence Of A Hoax Friedman, understandably, hoped that Tim Cooper's "new" documents would support the authenticity of the original MJ-12 papers. The IPU document which reported recovery of a crashed saucer in the vicinity of Oscura Peak seemed to confirm the Plains of San Agustin crashed-saucer tale of Barney Barnett, which Friedman has long endorsed. However, when his investigation showed obvious evidence that some of the documents were counterfeit, Friedman did not withhold such information from his readers. For example, one of Cooper's letters purportedly written by Secretary of State George C. Marshall turned out to be a slightly revised version of a letter that Marshall had sent to Presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey during the 1944 campaign. The authentic Marshall letter sought Dewey's cooperation in keeping secret the fact that the U.S. had cracked the Japanese military encryption code. In Friedman's book he wrote: "With this unambiguous fraud as background, I became convinced that several other items [Cooper documents] were retyped and slightly changed versions of old memos or letters." Dr. Wood presumably read Friedman's book because he wrote a very favorable review of the book in the Spring 1997 issue of the journal published by Peter Sturrock's Society for Scientific Exploration. In Wood's review, he mentioned "three documents from Timothy Cooper, a California researcher who has been sending Friedman material from unknown sources. These three documents are supportive of the existence of an MJ-12 Majic project." (Emphasis added.) Wood's claim is challenged on p. 159 of Friedman's book where he wrote that he now believed that the "Hillenkoetter memo [February 1948] -- the first document that Tim Cooper had sent me -- was really a doctored version of a memo... sent to President Roosevelt during World War II." Skeptics UFO Newsletter -4- Jan. 1999 If Friedman's book showed that he suspected that some of Cooper's MJ-12 documents were counterfeit, one should expect Dr. Wood and son Ryan to be at least cautious in endorsing their authenticity. But in Dr. Wood's closing comments at the recent UFO conference in Connecticut he said: "THESE DOCUMENTS ARE GENUINE. NOBODY SHOULD LEAVE THIS ROOM FEELING THAT THESE DOCUMENTS ARE ANYTHING BUT GENUINE!" "MJ-12 Special Operations Manual," Which Surfaced In Early 1994, Also Is Endorsed By Dr. Wood Despite Its Many Flaws Another "MJ-12 document" surfaced on March 14, 1994, when long-time UFOlogist Don Berliner received a roll of undeveloped 35 mm. black/white film which had been mailed from La Crosse, Wisc., by an anonymous source. When the film was developed on March 22, it contained photos of 21 pages from a 31-plus-page document titled "MAJESTIC-12 GROUP SPECIAL OPERATIONS MANUAL (SOM 1-01): EXTRATERRESTRIAL ENTITIES AND TECHNOLOGY RECOVERY AND DISPOSAL." The document, dated April 7, 1954, carried the classification "TOP SECRET / MAJIC EYES ONLY." Berliner, co-author with Friedman of the 1992 book "Crash At Corona," promptly gave a copy to the General Accounting Office (GAO) which had just launched its investigation into crashed-saucer claims [SUN #25/Jan. 1994]. Curiously, more than eight months would elapse before Berliner decided to inform his co-author/partner about SOM 1-01, which Friedman later characterized as "the mother of all Majestic-12 documents" in his book "Top Secret/MAJIC" (p. 161). Friedman devotes a chapter of the book to SOM 1-01 and reproduces much of its contents. Friedman says he later provided a copy of the SOM 1-01 to his friend Dr. Robert Wood for analysis and authentication, explaining that "I trust [Wood] completely; excellent technical background, sound judgment, very knowledgeable about UFOs and high security." (During Wood's employment by McDonnell Douglas he held a "Top Secret" security clearance.) Friedman's chapter on SOM 1-01 suggests that when the book was published in 1996, he had ambivalent views on the authenticity of SOM 1-01: "A detailed proposal to validate this document by investigating internal references, the appropriateness of the procedures enumerated, the relationship to other MJ-12 documents, and the occurrences of any possible anachronisms has been made by myself, Dr. Wood, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, and another researcher, and it awaits funding. Based upon past experience, authentication will be no easy task..." Authentication, or "de-authentication," would be easier if Friedman and Wood were more rigorous and less credulous. The alleged objective of SOM 1-01, as stated on p. 4, is: "This operations manual is published for the information and guidance of all concerned. It contains information on determination, documentation, collection, and disposition of debris, devices, craft, and occupants of such craft as defined as Extraterrestrial Technology or Extraterrestrial Biological Entities (EBEs) in Section II of this chapter." But the contents of SOM 1-01 reveal it was written to provide useful "evidence" for those who promote the myth of crashed-saucer recovery and government coverup. Much of the information in SOM 1-01 would not be needed by UFO-recovery teams. DISCREPANCIES REVEAL MJ-12 SPECIAL OPERATIONS MANUAL IS A HOAX On p. 4, SOM 1-01 instructs MJ-12 UFO-recovery units on how to keep the press and the public from learning that any UFOs are ET craft by falsely explaining UFO sightings and crashed saucers as "meteors, downed satellites, weather balloons and military aircraft..." (Emphasis added.) But as of April 1954, no man-made earth satellite had ever been launched and more than three years would elapse before the first satellite was launched by the USSR on Oct. 4, 1957. It reentered on Jan. 4, 1958. Thus, if prior to late 1957 an MJ-12 unit followed SOM 1-01's instructions and tried to explain a crashed UFO as being a "downed satellite," it would be an obviously ridiculous explanation. Dr. Wood sought to counter this discrepancy by claiming Skeptics UFO Newsletter -5- Jan. 1999 that "in 1954 there were references in open literature talking about our plans for satellites." (Emphasis added.) Wood did not cite a single specific to back up his claim. He couldn't. It was not until April 26, 1955, that the USSR became the first to announce plans to build and launch an earth satellite. And it was not until July 29, 1955, that President Eisenhower announced that the U.S. would also build and launch a satellite. Some of the discrepancies are a bit subtle. For example, a "Current Situation" status report on p. 3 states that as of early 1954, "Several dead entities have been recovered along with a substantial amount of wreckage and devices from downed craft.... One of the crashes was the result of direct military action" (but no details are provided). The Eisenhower briefing document states that four dead ETs were recovered in New Mexico in mid-1947, while two of the Cooper documents report five ET bodies. But nearly seven years later, only "several dead" ETs have been recovered?? SOM 1-01 reports two types of ETs: * Very skinny humanoid, 41-50 in. tall, which weigh only 25-50 lb. Skin is bluish-gray in color. Very large heads, extremely large wrap-around eyes, slits for nose and mouth. Webbed feet. SOM 1-01 states: "Creatures do not appear to be mammalian." * Humanoid, 60-64 in. tall, which weigh 80-100 lb. Eyes are small, almond-shaped, very wide mouth, skin color is pale, chalky-yellow. SOM 1-01 says: "Might be mistaken for human beings of the Oriental race if seen from a distance." [SUN Comment: "UFO abductees" do not offer similar descriptions. Perhaps this type of ET does not engage in abductions.] STILL MORE SOM 1-01 DISCREPANCIES SOM 1-01 contains a chart purportedly showing where recovered ET technology should be sent. Seven of the 11 categories, including "aircraft" and "powerplant," were to be sent to "Area 51 S4," rather than to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio where the USAF's aeronautical and propulsion experts were then located. (Thus SOM 1-01 seems to confirm recent-vintage claims that Area 51, located in Nevada and part of Nellis Air Force Base, is used to test and reverse-engineer captured UFOs.) But in 1954, when SOM 1-01 allegedly was printed, that site was known as "Watertown." The "Site 51" terminology was first used in 1958. In Dr. Wood's October UFO talk, he said that SOM 1-01 critics "claim that Area 51 did not exist in 1954." He quoted a Jan. 1951 newspaper article which said "Indian Springs Project Keyed To Defense Plans," but it made no mention of "Area 51." SOM 1-01's Table of Contents lists "Photographs" on p. 31, but that page was one of those missing from the film received by Berliner. Dr. Wood said that "all those photographs were removed by order of MJ-12 on the 12th of April, 1955," but he did not disclose the source of this information. Wood speculated that the photos showed ETs which MJ-12 officials considered far too sensitive to be included in a document even so highly classified as "TOP SECRET/MAJIC EYES ONLY." One SOM 1-01 page showed sketches of four predominant UFO configurations. At the time SOM 1-01 (allegedly) was written, the Battelle Memorial Institute (under Project Blue Book contract) was analyzing 1,700 UFO reports which had been submitted to the USAF from 1947 to 1952. When the Battelle report was published in 1955, it cited four different UFO shapes which seemed to defy prosaic explanation. NONE of the four was triangular shaped. But one of the four UFO shapes cited in SOM 1-01 which attracted SUN's attention was triangular in shape with lights at each apex, which closely resembled the triangular-shaped "UFO" photo taken in Belgium in April 1990. Prior to the Belgian UFO photo, which achieved international fame (and the counterfeiter's attention), reports of triangular-shaped UFOs were extremely rare. Another of the UFO configurations cited in SOM 1-01 was shaped like an ice-cream cone, which Wood admitted was unfamiliar to him. Skeptics UFO Newsletter -6- Jan. 1999 Ryan Wood, in his closing comments at the Connecticut conference, claimed that the U.S. government has mastered the remarkable propulsion technology used by UFOs -- but that MJ-12 "has kept it covered for 50 years and haven't let modern scientists and the academic open-science process discover how to apply it." Robert Wood's concluding remarks claimed that MJ-12 "tightly controls" the news media on the subject of UFOs and that "we're really not getting the facts from the media because of that control." (If true, clearly President Clinton should have turned to MJ-12 to help suppress media coverage of the Monica Lewinsky affair.) During the question/answer session, a member of the audience asked what the Woods had done to "authenticate" Tim Cooper. Ryan Wood responded: "We've talked to him. We've looked him in the eye and checked out his statements. He's made a sworn affidavit. He's written a lot of material about his experience with 'Cantwheel' -- this leaker who drops stuff in his mailbox." If SUN had had the opportunity, we would have asked: "Why did 'Cantwheel' select Tim Cooper -- who is an 'unknown' in the UFO field -- to leak MJ-12 documents to instead of mailing them anonymously to the well-known Stanton Friedman?" Friedman has appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows talking about his belief in the authenticity of MJ-12. And he invites persons with sensitive UFO material to contact him, with the promise that he will protect their identity. When SUN learned from Friedman's book that he had found at least some of the Cooper documents to be counterfeit, we found it strange that Friedman (seemingly) showed no interest in investigating the source of the bogus documents. So SUN wrote to Dr. Wood 15 months ago (Oct. 23, 1997) seeking information about Cooper and the circumstances of his receiving the "new MJ-12 documents." When nearly five months elapsed without any response from Wood, we wrote him again on March 8, 1998, to request Cooper's address or telephone number. The letter also sought to learn more about Wood's relations with Cooper. When nearly four months had elapsed without a reply, we wrote Wood again on July 1. Another six months now have elapsed without any reply. And Wood has the "chutzpah" to accuse the government of coverup. At the UFO conference, THE WOODS REVEALED THAT THEY ARE WRITING A BOOK which will feature Cooper's "new" MJ-12-related documents and SOM 1-01. In their partner Firmage's recent press release, he claimed: "The plausibility of many seminal religious events recounted in world history is dramatically reaffirmed by the reality of this phenomenon. Based on private information available to the authors but not yet in print, I stand firmly behind the essential structure of the astonishing hypothesis contained in this work." INTERESTING QUESTION: WHAT WILL BE FRIEDMAN'S REACTION/RESPONSE? As earlier noted, Friedman has had a long, close friendship with Dr. Wood, who hired Friedman in the late 1960s to try "to back-engineer flying saucers using... funds available through the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program at McDonnell [Douglas]," as Friedman reveals in his book (p. 12). Friedman is one of the very few prominent UFOlogists who still endorses the validity of MJ-12 and welcomes support for the claim of MJ-12's existence. But having challenged the authenticity of Cooper's seriously flawed documents in his book, it will be difficult for him to change his appraisal. Additionally, Friedman, who succeeded Bill Moore as the chief promoter for MJ-12, is not likely to want to "play second fiddle" to Dr. Wood -- supported by a wealthy backer, i.e., Joe Firmage. SUN will be surprised if Friedman publicly rebukes Wood for his credulity in endorsing the Cooper documents. Meet UFO-Lawyer Peter Gersten: Director of CAUS Several SUN subscribers have requested more information about Peter Gersten, who reassumed control of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) earlier this year and has quickly emerged as one of the UFO Movement's most colorful leaders. The following is in Gersten's own words, from the Introduction to his booklet titled: "The Ultimate Secret." Skeptics UFO Newsletter -7- Jan. 1999 "From 1971 to 1994, I was a criminal defense trial attorney in New York City with a very interesting hobby: UFOs. Pursuant to this hobby, in 1977, I brought suit in the US District Court of the District of Columbia on behalf of Ground Saucer Watch, an Arizona-based UFO organization. The lawsuit was against the Central Intelligence Agency pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. I demanded the release of classified UFO-related documents. Following the lawsuit, the CIA, in 1979, released over 900 pages of documents relating to the UFO phenomenon. But they refused to release 57 documents, claiming national security considerations. "On June 24, 1980, I brought suit in the same District Court against the National Security Agency, but this time on behalf of my own recently formed organization, Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS). My objective was 135 UFO-related documents the NSA had refused to release. On Nov. 18, 1980, based upon a NSA top secret affidavit which I was not allowed to see, US District Court Judge Gerhard A Gesell dismissed the lawsuit stating that 'the continued need for secrecy far outweighed the public's right to know.' After my appeal to the US Court of Appeals was denied in 1981, I brought a Writ of Certiorari to the US Supreme Court. On Mar. 8, 1982, four and one-half years after the first lawsuit, the Supreme Court refused to entertain the Writ, thereby precluding me from obtaining the documents through legal channels." [SUN Comment: The documents, which would have revealed that NSA was covertly eavesdropping on radio and telephone communications of Soviet air defense centers, were released in early 1997 in response to a SUN request. Highlights of the NSA documents were reported in SUN #43/Jan. 1997.] "A few months after the Supreme Court's decision, I [Gersten] began to receive messages involving a plan to get the truth out about this planet's contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence. The messages lasted about three months and would come during the day as very concentrated thoughts and at night as vivid dreams. The messages involved a plan to kidnap a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The messages stopped as abruptly as they had begun and it wasn't until March 1996 that they began again... and this time with a force that was totally consuming. During a 14-day period, I continually and constantly received messages similar in nature to the ones in 1982... but this time clearer and more detailed. I took notes... copious notes and formulated an outline for the story I call The Ultimate Secret.... In December 1996, the messages became clearer and some of the fictionalized people and places became real. For example, the Supreme Court Justice was a fictionalized person in the story until I received a message that the Justice is Sandra Day O'Connor. (Emphasis added.)" "...beginning on March 18, 1997, and every third day thereafter, I sent another episode of my story to a list of people on the Internet with an interest in UFOs.... On June 24, 1997, the day The Ultimate Secret [story] begins, two alleged Associated Press messages were sent to my readers.... The first stated the FBI had prevented a plot to kidnap Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the second stated that the FBI had obtained a warrant for my arrest. Later that day I was visited by several FBI agents who told me they had evidence that I actually planned to kidnap the Justice.... They suggested, under threat of prosecution, that I leave Phoenix and cease to publish The Ultimate Secret or be involved with the UFO subject.... On August 1, 1997, I left Phoenix... but still continue to send out a new episode about every three days. And I am now more than ever involved in Ufological matters, speaking to UFO groups and collecting evidence for another FOIA lawsuit. So when you are not reading my story or watching the sky... look out your window because you just might see my Jeep with the license plate that reads, 'I ALIEN.'" Gersten Endorses Hoagland Prediction: ET Craft To Land Dec. 7 A recent prediction that an ET spacecraft would land north of Phoenix, Az., on Dec. 7, made by Richard Hoagland who earlier promoted the now-discredited "Face on Mars," was endorsed by Peter Gersten in a memo filed Nov. 8 on the Internet. Gersten's memo said: "CAUS believes we must assume Dick Hoagland's information, based upon his experience, expertise and intuition and corroborated by his calculations and Pentagon sources, is reliable and accurate." Skeptics UFO Newsletter -8- Jan. 1999 Hoagland also claims to see ET-built structures on the Moon in photos taken by Apollo astronauts, which earlier prompted Gersten to announce plans to raise money to send a rocket to the Moon to take photos of these structures [SUN #51/May 1998]. According to Gersten's memo, "Hoagland has stated that, according to his Pentagon sources, the military's retrieval of the interstellar craft is referred to as 'Project Samson'.... Hoagland has refused to identify the exact location north of Phoenix where the craft will land. Richard has stated that military troops will be moving into the area soon and has even speculated that Phoenix and the surrounding areas will be placed under Martial Law." SUN has learned from its usually UNreliable source that when the White House learned from Hoagland of the pending ET visit, President Clinton was delighted -- confident that the historic event would divert Congress' focus from its current impeachment inquiry. So the President ordered the Pentagon, NASA and the CIA to try to communicate with the ETs and convince them to land on the White House lawn for maximum TV and media coverage, instead of north of Phoenix. To that end, U.S. Weather Service scientists arranged for mild spring-like weather in Washington and an extremely heavy snowstorm in central Arizona on Dec. 6-7. But at the last minute, the ETs decided that a landing on the White House lawn might be interpreted as political partisanship. By this time, central Arizona was enveloped in a heavy snowstorm which made landing there risky. So the ETs returned home and will reschedule their visit. Hoagland suspects "hyperdimensional" interference. He says the snowstorm is "unprecedented" and claims the snow was "falling horizontally despite the nearly complete absence of wind." In Retrospect: Words Of Wisdom On June 24, 1977, the 30th anniversary of Kenneth Arnold's historic UFO sighting, prominent pro-UFOlogists met in Chicago to participate in the First International UFO Conference, sponsored by Fate magazine. A few of their 1977 comments from the published proceedings provide a basis for assessing what has changed in the last 21 years, and what has not: * Jim Lorenzen, APRO International Director: "One thing we have learned when we have gone into the background of persons who claim to have been abducted by UFOs, to have had contact with UFOs, or to have received messages from space people, is that for the most part they have a history of being battered children or have had sad histories in other ways.... This suggests that contactees may be people who... are looking for ways to bolster their self images." * Dr. David Jacobs, (then) UFO historian: "One of the serious problems in UFO research is that we constantly encounter grand theories devised from lack of knowledge.... I think that the psychic field is definitely one of those areas we should give more attention to." * Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Center for UFO Studies Director: "Over the last 30 years UFO research organizations have recorded thousands and thousands of sightings. But I sometimes wonder what good it will do.... What we should aim for... is a dozen or two dozen cases which simply cannot be torn down. Presenting even a handful of truly solid cases to a Congressional committee would convince the Phil Klasses of this world." * Stanton Friedman, UFO lecturer: "But absence of evidence is not evidence for the absence of evidence (sic)." NOTE: Opinions expressed in SUN are those of its editor -- unless otherwise noted -- and do NOT necessarily represent the views of any organization with which he is affiliated -- or his spouse -- We thank DR. GARY POSNER for help in proofreading. SKEPTICS UFO NEWSLETTER (SUN) IS PUBLISHED BIMONTHLY. SUBSCRIPTION RATE (SIX ISSUES) IS $15/YEAR FOR U.S./CANADA. OVERSEAS RATE (AIRMAIL) IS $20/YEAR. (Please make check/money order payable to PHILIP J. KLASS.)