• Official Air Force Report Confirms Saucer Smear's Mogul Balloon Story Re The Roswell Incident
• Lawsuit Time Again
• Miscellaneous Ravings
• UFO Convention Roundup
• Tidbits of Trash
• Letters to Ye Olde Editor

The GAO audit involved a number of different government agencies, but focused on the Air Force, which, in a "preemptive strike", has gone public with their conclusions months before the GAO investigation can possibly be completed. Since the basic Air Force conclusion is that nothing more un- earthly than a Mogul balloon was involved, ufologists are (naturally) now up in arms. All the leading Roswell/UFO authorities have picked the Air Force report to pieces, and Stanton Friedman in particular has issued a paper severely criticizing a New York Times summary of the Air Force's conclusions.

There are, no doubt, errors of omission and commission in the official report, which admits that the Air Force did not even attempt to interview all the Roswell witnesses (running into hundreds) that civilian researchers have located over the years. This makes sense, especially since most of these witnesses are dead; but one wonders, for example, why an obvious witness like mortioian Glenn Dennis, who claims to have second-hand knowledge about alien bodies at Roswell, was not interviewed. He is alive, easy to find, and is connected with one of the two flying saucer museums that have sprung up in the town of Roswell in recent years. He was silent on the subject for many years, but has certainly made up for it lately.

We of "Smear" continue to agree with Roswell researcher Karl Pflock, who is satisfied with the Mogul balloon explanation re the Roswell debris site, but is unable to completely dismiss the alien bodies/crashed spacecraft rumors re the so-called crash site - as the Air Force does. The Air Force is correct, however, in stating that the pro-UFO researchers can't agree among themselves on the location of the crash site, the number of bodies, the description of the alleged spacecraft, etc. It has been theorized that two separate weird events may have happened at nearly the same time, back in July of 1947, but neither event necessarily involves a spacecraft.

Many parts of the Air Force report do make a lot of sense to us, if no one else. Arguing against the spaceship hypothesis, the 23-page report states in part:

...If some event happened that was one of the `watershed happenings' in human history, the U.S. military certainly reacted in an unconcerned and cavalier manner. In an actual case, the military would have had to order thousands of soldiers and airmen, not only at Roswell but throughout the United States, to act nonchalantly, pretend to conduct and report business as usual, and generate absolutely no paperwork of a suspicious nature, while simultaneously anticipating that 20 years or more into the future people would have available a comprehensive Freedom of Information Act that would give them great leeway to review and explore government documents. The records indicate that none of this happened; or if it did, it was controlled by a security system so efficient and tight that no one, U.S. or otherwise, has been able to duplicate it since. If such a system had been in effect at the time, it would have also been used to protect our atomic secrets from the Soviets, which history has showed obviously was not the case. The records reviewed confirmed that no such sophisticated and efficient security system existed.

...With regard to highly classified records, it should be noted that any programs that employ enhanced security measures or controls are known as Special Access Programs (SAPs)...If the Air Force recovered some type of extraterrestrial spacecraft and/or bodies and was exploiting this for scientific and technological purposes, then such a program would be operated as a SAP. SAF/AAZ, the Central Office for all Air Force SAPs, has knowledge of and security oversight over all SAPs. SAF/AAZ categorically stated that no such Special Access Program(s) exists that pertain to extraterrestrial spacecraft/aliens...

We believe that there is no spaceship-oriented cover-up regarding Roswell, but we do feel that the bodies described by several first-hand and second-hand witnesses do need to be explained. The Roswell Incident remains a frustrating paradox - it can't be a significant event, and yet it might be.

We have followed Beckjord's activities for quite a few years, and have met him several times. It seems he always needs to be in a blood feud with someone, in order to make himself feel better. When we last met Erik in 1993 at "UFO Expo West", he was feuding with researcher Gary Schultz, and was also angry at Inner Earth advocate Harley Byrd because of a "death threat" letter he claimed Byrd had sent him.

In recent months, we have tried in vain to calm down both Beckjord and Byrd, whom we know slightly. We have also continued to comment on the matter in "Smear". Beckjord, however, has (by phone) taken it upon himself to demand that we print nothing whatever by or about Harley Byrd in "Smear", and this we have refused to do. (Freedom of speech, and all that sort of thing!)

In our August 15th issue, at the top of Page 7, we printed several allegations Byrd made in a letter to us about Beckjord. We can't vouch for all of these allegations personally, but we know at least one of them is absolutely true because we were right there when it happened: Says Byrd, "1993: UFO EXPO WEST - Erik attacks me at my booth, drunk, yelling where are my degrees from; where did I go to school, etc., etc." This totally unnecessary scene was created by Beckjord in a public place, in front of other people.

As we have stated before, Harley Byrd does have serious psychological problems. He is in our opinion more delusional than Beckjord, but less disagreeable. Erik feels strongly that Byrd should leave the UFO field, and Byrd feels the same way about Erik. Quite possibly they are both right about each other. At one point the proprietor of "UFO Expo" reached this very same conclusion!

• We have a long anonymous tract commenting on the "mysterious death" last June of Ron Johnson, who was MUFON's Deputy Director for Investigations. Ron, whom we never knew personally, was seated at a meeting when he just keeled over, bleeding from the nose. This sounds to us like a brain hemorrhage, which is not uncommon and certainly not mysterious. Yet, this tract speculates at length on various possible causes of death, concluding that it was not from natural causes. If it was murder, "it is unlikely that anyone in MUFON was involved", they say. Or, was Ron "eliminated by a domestic intelligence operation"? Or possibly "murdered by a foreign intelligence operation"? All this, because Ron had been involved in highly classified work, supposedly unrelated to UFOs.

  It all reminds us of the suicides of early UFO personalities Morris K. Jesup (whom we knew quite well) and James McDonald. Many in this nutty UFO field still can~t accept these as genuine, unassisted suicides caused by the burden of personal problems.

  No, Ron Johnson did not commit suicide; we are certain of that!...

• There are endless UFO shows on TV these days, but a landmark one was the "Larry King Live" 2-hour presentation of last October 1st, filmed just outside the Lii' Ale'Inn at Rachel, Nevada, near the Air Force's dreaded "Area 51". Researchers Stanton Friedman, Kevin Randle, and Dr. Steven Greer were out there in person, sitting around the desert with King, together with a local character named Glenn Campbell. Actually, we thought Campbell came off the best, with his lowkeyed outlook and dry humor.

  In addition, there were brief segments on film of endless UFO personalities, including Phil Klass, Carl Sagan, Jacques Vallee, Bob Lazar, Don Ecker, Rep. Steven Schiff, (former) Senator Barry Goldwater, Sgt. Robert Dean, Budd Hopkins (BOOOO!), Linda Moulton Howe, Jenny Randles, Richard Doty, Ed Komarek, and an entity known only as "Agent X". The best one- liner came from ole Phil Klass, who said something very close to: "Those few psychiatrists who investigate UFO abductions will someday be sued for practicing witchcraft without a license."

  Actually, the show came off as well balanced, pro vs. con, due to scripted paragraphs that King seemed to read off a teleprompter, to the effect that he is merely trying to find out how much of the UF0 lore is true - all of it, some of it, or none of it. (Or, none of the above!).

• We have a letter from Bob Oechsler (pronounced X-ler, as in "X Files") in which he offers his formal resignation from the UFO field as of September 1st, 1994. Oechsler is an engineering type who was deeply involved in research on the Gulf Breeze case several years ago, and he also was a key player in the notorious Guardian UFO Landing Case in the Carp area of Ontario, Canada. A few issues back, the MUFON Journal ran the first part of a two (or three?) part expose of the Guardian Case - but the follow-up was never printed therein, possibly because of loud protests from Oechsler and others, re Part One. It is known, incidentally, that MUFON czar Walt Andrus takes a very dim view of Oechsler and his research, though the reasons for this are not clear, since the Guardian Case doesn't seem (to us) to be much worse than other UFO cases MUFON has endorsed.

  In his resignation-from-ufology letter, Oechsler concludes by urging us all to read a book called "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku (1994), from the Oxford University Press. The book is nonfiction, he adds.

• September l6th-l7th was the weekend of the 31st National UFO Conference, held again this year in Cleveland, Ohio. The lecturers included: Roswell experts Kevin Randle and Stanton Friedman (who barely spoke to each other at all!); UFO & psychic authority Allen Greenfield; Dr. Frank Stranges; G. Cope Schelihorn; Simone Mendez; and of course your humble "Smear" editor, who is Permanent Chairman of the NUFOC. Local co-chairmen Rick Hilberg and Al Manak chose not to participate as speakers, but were much in evidence in regard to organizational matters, and deserve mucho credit for the success of the event. The main lecture hall was sold out, but as at Tim Beckley's recent conventions, there were problems in getting people to attend the simultaneous "workshops" held in a smaller hall nearby.

  Cleveland was the birthplace of the NUFOC back in 1964, and has hosted many of our annual conventions in the intervening years. Sadly, this was the last one that will take place in Cleveland, and it is indeed "the end of an era". Hopefully Allen Greenfield will host next year's in Atlanta, Georgia, at a date to be announced....

• As we have mentioned in previous issues, Harley Byrd of Inner Earth fame had a convention in Burbank, California, on the same weekend as ours. We obviously could not attend, but we were intrigued by the peculiar nature of his pre-convention publicity, and have checked on the results. One of the fliers for his "Universal UFO Expo" mentions "40 speakers", although only 21 are listed. How many actually showed up depends on whom you talk to but the figure is probably 10 to 15. Erik Beckjord, who is rumored to have caused a security problem at Byrd's conclave, claims that only 3 speakers actually showed up. In any case, Byrd seemed satisfied, and is planning for another such event at the Long Beach, Ca. Holiday Inn on the weekend of Feb. 18th-19th, 1995. Egads!.

• Your editor also attended the Project Awareness convention in Pensacola, Florida (next to Gulf Breeze) on the weekend of Nov. l4th-l6th, but our report on that will have to wait till our next glorious issue.

• Under the headline "Financial Breakthrough in UFO Research", MUFON has announced that the three major UFO groups - CUFOS, MUFON, and FUFOR, will now be funded at least in part by the Bigelow Foundation. No figures are given. MUFON's Tom Deuley, a former employee of NSA, will administer the funds. "Smear" has long been aware of the persistent rumor that the Bigelow Foundation is a CIA conduit. It is, incidentally, the same outfit that recently funded Victoria Alexander's benign study of the UFO attitudes of religious leaders...

• After many months of empty promises, William Moore has finally come out with a new issue cf FOCUS, the bi-monthly (?) newsletter of the Fair Witness Project, Inc., 4219 West Olive Ave., Suite 247, Burbank, Ca. 91505. This issue features, among several interesting items, an article purporting to be "the true story of the Paul Bennewitz Affair", co-authored by Moore, Shandera, and their shadowy military compatriot, Richard Doty.....

• French author Jean Sider has kindly sent us a nicely autographed copy of his latest book "Contacts Supra-Terrestres". We do read French (sort of), but we have not yet read this tome, We do know that Sider believes UFOs to be 4-D or thereabouts. ...

• Quote of the month: Bob Girard of Arcturus Books, at the beginning of his Oct. 1994 catalogue: "We apologize in advance for not being so offensive this month. (We) just don't have the space." He's not kidding!...

• In our own little "neck of the woods", Mel Tennis has resigned as the MUFON Section Director for Dade County (Miami) and Monroe County, which includes Key West, where we live. The new Section Director is a woman named Mary Margaret Zimmer, and she publishes a monthly 2-page bulletin called MUFON South Florida SKYSCAM. Your editor remains firmly entrenched as a MUFON Journal Subscriber (J.S.)

• PROF. CHARLES MOORE of Roswell fame writes:

  ...For many years, until it was corrected in August of 1992, I had imprinted in my memory the identification of the triangular, corner-reflecting, weather radar targets as type ML-306/AP In fact, I gave that identification to William Moore when he visited me sometime around 1980, before his book `The Roswell Incident' was published. It was therefore a considerable embarrassment to me and a sobering assessment of the quality of my memory to find, in a manual I had written, that the targets of interest during 1947 were type ML-307/AP....

  Another correction (to your `Smear' article): I was not the `scientific leader' of Project Mogul at any time. The leader of our effort on Long Range Detection (Project Mogul) was Dr, James A. Peoples, a geophysicist working at Air Materiel Command Watson Laboratories. At the time, I was a graduate student in physics at New York University and was the project engineer cf the NYU Balloon Group, We were charged with developing constant level balloons to carry low frequency microphones to the tropopause level for the detection of distant explosions. I suspect that one of the test flights that we released in June, 1947 may have produced the debris that the rancher found. His description fits the balloons and clusters of radar targets that we flew at that time. ...

  At Jim McDonald's request, I investigated the residue of the Socorro sighting in 1967 or 1968. I talked to Lonnie Zamora, who took me to the site. I searched the area for the melted rock fragments that Lonnie described. I talked to Opal Grinder, the filling station operator, who reported the Colorado motorist's complaint about an aircraft. I wrote to Capt. Holder who was Up-Range commander at Stallion Site for White Sands Missile Range in 1964 (when the Zamora sighting occurred). He never answered.

  The results of my poking around? None. I found no physical evidence to support Lonnie's story despite extensive sifting of the soil at the site which in itself was quite peculiar: It was about a quarter mile or so directly off the north end of the runway at Socorro International, beneath the final approach. Lonnie believed that he saw what he reported and he appeared to be truthful, unimaginative and without any ulterior motives. Despite Phil Klass, I found no indications suggesting that this was a tourist-attracting ploy by the local Chamber of Commerce, nor was it a prank by the New Mexico Tech students.

  It has been pointed out that Lonnie's description was a good one for the lunar lander for which, it is rumored, tests began at the southern end of White Sands Missile Range about three years later...

• HERBERT TAYLOR writes:

  ... Your continued coverage of the fascinating new developments surrounding the Roswell affair is to be commended. .. Whatever the final outcome, the investigative efforts by Karl Pflock and Robert Todd deserve not only commendation by all, but also appreciation. Why has it taken so long for these facts (present all along) to emerge? Because the other principals involved became advocates of a viewpoint, casting aside objective inquiry.

• ROBERT ANTON WILSON writes as follows:

  Despite your suspicions, I did read every page of the last `Smear' and in fact I actually read every page of each issue. `Smear' is just short enough, and just funny enough, to be read like a letter, as soon as I open my mail.

  I didn't see the importance of the Moore/Mogul document because

  1. I have never followed the UFO scene as closely as you have
  2. the Roswell event profoundly bores me, because
  3. I long, long ago decided that no good evidence exists that anything of importance happened at Roswell in 1947, or any other year; and
  4. I doubt that Charles Moore's testimony will shake the Faithful any more than any other negative evidence. They will simply classify him as part of the Cover-Up Team.

  The UFO cases that continue to interest me, or don't bore me as much as Roswell, have a more profound enigma about them than Roswell and cannot, to my mind, fit into either the alien spaceship theory or the conscious hoax theory. I like them because they keep me puzzled, and therefore mentally active.

• Researcher KARL PFLOCK writes:

  As always, the latest `Smear' (Vol. 41, No. 7) was `delightful'. I was particularly taken with Monsieur Jean Sider's carefully considered, thoughtful, and incisively reasoned observations about my findings and views on Roswell. It is good to know the spirit of the Enlightenment continues to infuse the sons of France with the love cf reason, science, and tolerance. Montesquieu, Voltaire et al would be proud.

  Speaking of Sons of the Enlightenment, it should be noted that Phil Kiass's unequivocal declaration that the Mogul device found on the Brazel (actually, Foster) ranch was `NOT a giant Mogul balloon' is far from being so firmly established as his `NOT' implies. Stay tuned, there's moore, uh, more to come.

  "P.S. I was never (and am not now!) a CIA agent.

• And, ERIK BECKJORD writes as follows:

  Dear Mr. Moseley:

  Every year, 500 or more attorneys pass the Florida Bar exam. In Florida, at least 300 attorneys graduate from law school. Currently, a search is underway to locate the hungriest of these hungry, starving attorneys who have a desperate need to sue someone, even on contingent fee, in order to pay their office rent.

  The Yellow Pages in Miami are full of them.

  Your recently printed comments by one Harley A. Byrd in your publication `Saucer Smear' are deemed to be libelous and a valid cause of action in court for damages to the reputation and character of this writer, who is about to embark on a business enterprise in which reputation is highly needed to counteract the sometimes difficult reputation of the subject of the enterprise.

  You have already caused damages in excess of $1,000.00. Please remit this amount immediately to counteract the effects of your publication's damages, or the hungriest of the hungry Miami lawyers will take you to court for a far, far, far greater sum. Your property and businesses will be barely adequate to satisfy the judgment that will result against you for your aiding and abetting libel. ...

  P.S: Extra punitive damages will also be sought, based on your letters and postcards that demonstrate a sincere desire to inflict damage, pain, and mental distress. You take glee in spreading falsehoods. The jury will take note of this, and make an extra award.

  cc: Stanton Friedman, a successful litigant in a libel case.

  Beckjord is correct that Friedman is a successful litigant in a libel case. This was against British UFO author Jenny Randles, and it took place in jolly olde England, where (thank god!) the libel laws are very different than they are here! - Editor.

• ED KOMAREK of Operation Right to Know (ORTK) writes:

  It's rather obvious that the stress of trying to figure out the UFO/ET problem all these years is taking its toll. You are a triumph to the human spirit by maintaining your insanity for so long, having fragmented into several multiple personalities, one of which, 0ISEAU, I see is again coming to the surface in the most recent issue of `Smear'. Undoubtedly the conflicting views of the Roswell case must be the trigger this time around for this serious affliction.

  With the coverup ending, I fear the stress may become just too great and would hope that you will commit yourself to Dr. John Mack for therapy. It is hoped that in due time you may become whole again and live in peace. Unfortunately you would not be quite as interesting as in your present state, but that would be a small price to pay for peace of mind. I am sure that Don Ware would also be happy to assist Dr. Mack in your quest for peace of mind and unconditional love for your fellow man, once the UFO/ET coverup ends. We realize that the healing will take time, but with the help of all your friends you will make it through this most difficult of trans- itions.

  You must be assured there is a life for you after the coverup ends...

• GEORGE EARLEY writes:

  I thought OISEAU's message in the current `Smear' to be especially timely given the `horror' being expressed recently by sensitive souls in Congress over the ever-escalating costs of that black-budget spy building under construction near Dulles Airport. No doubt part of the high cost of construction is directly related to special housing provided therein for visiting aliens..

• JOHN ALEXANDER, head of the non-lethal weapons program at Los Alamos National Laboratories in Los Alamos, New Mexico, writes:

  ...Reports are made by law enforcement officials for all use of force, not just lethal incidents. In fact it is well known that as a police officer, you are better off killing a suspect than wounding him/her. Usually only one side to the story that way.

  The article you sent is interesting but irrelevant. Actually, I agree that legalization is the only logical solution to the drug problem. It eliminates about 80% of the violent crime, and would allow concentration of resources on prevention and rehabilitation. Of course this is not currently politically correct thinking. Neither weapons nor legalization address the fundamental issues that cause crime or drug abuse.

  However, nonlethal weapons are needed for other situations. They are not conceived of to reduce crime (the fundamental flaw in your commentary). By most knowledgeable estimates, the recent Los Angeles riots were mild compared to what may be anticipated. The current arsenal allows police to increase deadly force, or to evacuate and leave the area to looters. We saw the second option employed in L.A. and the consequences thereof. As David Boyd of NIJ puts it, "Law enforcement officers today have the same options as Wyatt Earp".

  Nonlethal weapons are technology options that provide commanders, military and civilian, a wider range of responses. No one believes they are a panacea for crime or war. If you believe they are `too scary', fill out the form I sent you and carry it.

  John encloses a photo of himself and wife Victoria seated with the notorious Gordon Novel. More about Gordon anon. - Editor.

• BOB WANDERER writes as follows:

  Re your item about the Africans trying to walk on water and drowning: I'm disappointed that someone as good at spotting UFO hoaxes as you are wasn't more dubious of this yarn. The San Francisco Chronicle ran the wire story on it, and then another a few days later admitting it was a hoax.

• The legendary JOHN LEAR writes:

  To say that I was deeply honored and stricken with gratitude would be an understatement when I read in `Smear' that I had been personally selected by your Supremeness to personally fly you to Harley Byrd's UFO Expo in Burbank. I immediately called Mom and reserved the family Learjet for this flight. Please advise the exact date you wish transportation and if there would be any special requirement for catering. Also please advise the nearest airport to your home. ..

Prosecutors said the teenaged Tahoe girl smoked marijuana with Brlskman who then told her he was from another planet and that if she had sex with him, he could give her immunities from all kinds of diseases.