"`Saucer Smear' is the indispensable guide to who is feuding with whom in the field of Ufology; who has recently called whom a liar; who is accusing whom of getting drunk and assaulting, or worse. Moseley publishes both sides of disputes submitted to him, no matter how scurrilous or puerile the charges may be..."
-Skeptic ROBERT SHEAFFER, writing in his "Psychic Vibrations" column in the May/June 1996 issue of "Skeptical Inquirer'

---

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE SAUCER & UNEXPLAINED CELESTIAL EVENTS RESEARCH SOCIETY

---

EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley, J.S.

NON-SCHEDULED NEWSLETTER Volume 43, No. 5 June 1st, 1996

MAILING ADDRESS: P. 0. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041

• More Roswell Fragments!
• Tidbits of Trash
• Ye Olde Book Bag
• The Readers Strike Back

This anonymous letter to Bell has been put on the Internet, and alleges that a spaceman who survived the Roswell UFO crash later told military investigators the following:

"The (crashed) disc was a `probeship' dispatched from a `launchship' that was stationed at the dimensional gateway to the Terran Solar System, 32 light years from Terra. They had been conducting operations on Terra for over 100 years. Another group was exploring Mars... The disc that crashed had collided with a meteor in orbit of Terra, and was attempting to compensate its flight vector, but because of the collision, the inter-atmospheric propulsion system malfunctioned, and the occupants sent out a distress signal to their companions on Mars. The `launchship' commander made the decision to authorize an attempted soft landing on the New Mexican desert..."

These ravings go on at some length, and a spokesman for the Museum admits that some portions are "too wild to be credible". Amen!

We have no information as to whether or not these fragments will be analyzed. They are said to be made of "pure extract aluminum", whatever that means. (Our thanks to researcher Jerry Lucci for this item.)

• We have received a long diatribe from Dr. Bruce Maccabee cf FUFOR, explaining how Col. Howard McCoy must have been either misinformed or uninformed regarding UFO crashes, when he stated at a SECRET Air Force meeting in 1948 that there had been no UFO crashes at that point in time. This refers to our lead story in the April 1st, 1996 issue of Smear, in which we quoted Col. McCoy's exact words from the transcript of that meeting, as supplied to us by Bill LaParl. McCoy's statement is also reprinted on the masthead of this issue.

  A more detailed rebuttal of Maccabee's point cf view can be found on Pages 1 through 3 of the May 1996 issue of Phil Kiass' "Skeptics UFO Newsletter" (SUN). Though sometimes "scooped" by Smear, SUN does an excellent job in its own unique way...

• We have a fascinating item supplied to us by the Miami UFO Center, which gives (from the Internet) Bill Cooper's opinion on Don Ecker and Vicki Cooper of California's "UFO Magazine". Bill Cooper states that, contrary to Don Ecker's claims, he was not an officer in the Army, he was never in Special Forces, and never in Viet Nam. He was awarded no metals, and was never in U.S. Army Intelligence. After his period in military service, Don "had a problem with alcohol", and got into several difficulties. As for Don's wife Vicki Cooper (no relation to Bill), she used to work for "The Mayflower Madam" in various positions, according to Bill Cooper (not us!)

  The most interesting thing is that Bill Cooper himself also "has a problem with alcohol", as we have seen personally, when he and Erik Beckjord grappled with each other physically at a private party at a UFO convention awhile back, and sent most attendees screaming from the room. Bill is a leading light in the current Militia movement, host of "One Hour of the Time" (a right-wing shortwave radio program), and editor of "Veritas", a pro-Militia newspaper-style magazine. Thus, could Bill's attack on the editors of "UFO Magazine" be a case of "the pot calling the kettle black"? Quite possibly...

• Another fascinating feud has been going on recently between UFO researcher Robert Todd, editor of "Cowflop Quarterly" and Dr. Jesse Marcel, Jr., son of Major Jesse Marcel, who quite literally was a major witness to the Roswell Incident. Marcel Jr. is obviously an ardent defender not only of his father's memory but of the interplanetary authenticity of the Roswell Incident.

  Todd's letters to Marcel were repetitiously probing but were not insulting in any way. We have seen all of this correspondence, which degenerates to the point where, in the final paragraph of his last blast at Todd, the good doctor has this to say:

  "In the meantime asshole, why don't you get a bottle of booze, hide under your mommies (sic) bed and get drunk. As it turns out todd, you are nothing but a fucking whacko, so GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

  Ain't ufoology grand??...

• Here's a follow-up on our Page One story in our April 1st issue, entitled "Shameful Government Conduct at `Area 51'": From Glenn Campbell's racy newsletter, "The Groom Lake Desert Rat", we learn that the lawsuit against the Government has been completely dismissed by a federal judge on national security grounds. An appeal to the federal court in San Francisco is planned by the plaintiffs...

• According to two different articles in the May/June issue of "UFO Magazine", Richard Hoagland's March 21st news conference re artificial Moon structures was something of a Bomb. Even reporters who hoped to be convinced, were disappointed by Hoagland's long-winded presentation and the poor quality of the NASA photos he showed, in that these photos did not show anything at all conclusive...

• Now we hear that a new alleged cameraman, re the notorious Roswell autopsy video, has been found and has actually made a TV interview for an outfit called Caveat Productions, which is somehow in league with Ray Santilli of England. This cameraman's name is Jack Snow, and he lives in the vicinity of Orlando, Florida. Various TV networks are said to be bidding for the interview, and sooner or later we will all see it on our TV tubes...

• Timothy Good of England has come out with another book, called "Beyond Top Secret" - a sequel to "Above Top Secret". But since there is really nothing (in the U.S.A., anyway) above or beyond Top Secret, this book must be filled with blank pages! (We haven't seen it as yet.)

  And we are informed, quite seriously, that Good is already working on a third book whose tentative title is "Way Above and Beyond Top Secret." Wheee!!...

• On April 9th, 1992, your humble Smear editor met the famous psychic (?) Uri Geller and family, at a posh hotel in Miami, to discuss our mutual troubles with James ("The Amusing") Randi and other matters. We were all sitting having "tea" at a table in their spacious tea room, when Geller suddenly picked up the spoon from his place setting, and walked your editor over to the nearest wall. There he touched the spoon very lightly near its middle, whereupon the spoon started to bend on its own for a period of perhaps thirty seconds without being further touched by Geller or anyone else. Afterwards he autographed the spoon, now bent at a 90 degree angle, and let us keep it.

  There are many more details to the story, but that is the gist. We are of the strong opinion that the spoon was somehow chemically "pre-programmed" to do just what it did. Thus this feat was a trick in our opinion, but a very sophisticated one which would be hard to duplicate.

  We called this matter to the attention of arch-skeptic Phil Klass, but he showed no interest at all. Finally, four years later, we called it to the attention of Klass' most devoted follower, Dr. Gary Posner of the Tampa Bay (Fl.) Skeptics. He did show an interest, so we have mailed him the spoon together with a detailed account of our recollection of what happened. Posner has promised to show the spoon & our account of it, to the learned gentlemen of CSICOP, when they gather in late June for their annual convention. We are told that Randi himself (though he has been eased out of CSICOP) will probably be there. Let's see what comes of this, if anything.

  Our position is that though Geller (and others, including your Smear editor himself) may well have psychic abilities at times, what we saw was a trick - but a very amazing one indeed...

• The dreaded "chupacabras" (goatsucker in Spanish) has now migrated to the United States from Puerto Rico, somehow, and has appeared in Miami, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and other cities where the Spanish language is prevalent. This mysterious animal, whatever it is, kills goats and other farm animals, and sucks their blood. Egads! (Thanks to the Miami UFO Center for this one.)...

• Note the display ad elsewhere for the glorious 33rd running of the annual National UFO Conference (NUFOC), this year to be held on the weekend of October 5th and 6th in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. Rick Hilberg of Cleveland had to cancel out and has been replaced by Karl Pflock of Roswell fame. We also have Stanton Friedman and Kevin Randle, making this the very first UFO convention on this Planet to feature all three of the current socially-acceptable Roswell "experts". And your Smear editor will be one of two banquet speakers on Saturday evening!

• Your editor will also be attending the MUFON conference in Greensboro, North Carolina on July 4th weekend, and on the corresponding weekend next year, we will be in the Holy Land (Roswell) for the 50th anniversary celebration there. It is amusing how ufology now counts back to the Roswell Incident rather than to the once-famous Kenneth Arnold sighting. These events were just weeks apart, back in 1947...

• On May 10th we watched a 2-hour UFO "special" on the Arts & Entertainment TV Network, which made a gallant & largely successful effort to give a balanced history of the UFO saga. Most of the material was "old hat" to us, however.

  First there was the 1938 Orsen Welles "War of the Worlds" fiasco, followed by Kenneth Arnold; Roswell (starring Kevin Randle, Jesse Marcel Jr. and others); Project Bluebook; Ray Palmer & FATE Magazine; George Adamski & the other contemporary contactees; "Area 51"; abductions - starring Betty Hill, the inevitable Budd Hopkins, Dr. David Jacobs and others); Dr. Michael Persinger, who has created fake abduction-like hallucinations in the laboratory; Crop Circles with Colin Andrews; S.E.T.I.; and a brief historical survey of demons, angels, etc. from the distant past. The closing sentence of the commentary was the best: "Perhaps what we are seeing is a reflection of ourselves". Well put!

  We were amused to see Dr. Bruce Maccabee presented as a careful, critical scientist rather than the hard-core True Believer he has become. There were few other surprises. Smear non-subscriber and aviation historian Curtis Peebles of California made an appearance as skeptic-of-the-day, replacing timeworn Phil Kiass. There was even a sop for your Smear editor: A brief viewing of an infamous paid advertisement that appeared on the back cover of the Saucer News (predecessor to Smear) Special Convention Issue in 1967, which starts out with the screaming headline "FORCED INTO SEX ABOARD A FLYING SAUCER!" Gosh, we wish it could really happen to us!...

• Please recall that back issues of "Saucer Smear" 1991-1996 are still available at our Headquarters. Earlier issues, all the way back to 1954 are available from: Tom Benson, P.O. Box 1174, Trenton, N.J. 08606

But all kidding aside, this is a monumental work, and there is no denying the fact that Jerome Clark - as imperfect as he well may be - is ufology's ace historian and always will be, as long as alleged spaceships continue to haunt our skies and as long as Jerry is there to record them. Buy this book, or try to freeload a copy, like we did. It's worth reading, and we do intend to read it someday...

Next we have a book called "Silent Invasion", written by a contactee named Ellen Crystall, who is also editor of a newsletter called "Contactee". This 190-page soft cover book details a vast number of UFO sightings that Ellen has had in various places over the years - many of them in a "window" area of New York State in the vicinity of a small town named Pine Bush. In most of these sighting incidents she was accompanied by various friends - including the late Harry Lebelson, whose obituary appeared in our last issue.

Ms. Crystall writes well and is decent enough to admit that she is confused about what it all means. (Aren't we all!?) She features a number of black & white photographs in her book; but if these are the best of hundreds of pictures she has taken, god help us! She explains that "clear photographs of the ships aren't possible with glass-lensed cameras", and that a quartz or plastic lens is needed. So why didn't she get one? And worst of all, WHY do these "ships" apparently only appear at night? If even one picture showed a close-up UFO in daylight, we'd really have something!

"Silent Invasion" is available for $12.95 from: Marlowe & Co., 632 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10012. It is now in its second printing...

Finally, we had a "Blast from the Past" the other day when we received a rather strange partial book "plot outline" from one Peter Gersten, a lawyer who in the late l970s was one of the founders of "Just Cause", the anti-Government-secrecy pro-UFO outfit which is still in existence today. (Other key figures in "Just Cause" are or were Bill Spaulding of GSW; Todd Zechel; Larry Bryant; and Barry Greenwood.)

What we have now from Gersten are the first two parts of a three-part outline of a novel called "The Ultimate Secret", which takes place in the year 1997. The outline is laced with the names of real people in the UFO field, in roles other than themselves from real life - if that makes any sense. Somewhere in the text your Smear editor appears as a judge, which is rather unbelievable in itself!

According to Gersten's Preface, "The Ultimate Secret" is a plan so diabolical and terrifying that it has existed, virtually unstoppable, for the past fifty years. What is this plan, you ask? We don't know yet, because Part Three is deliberately missing from the manuscript, and the page on which it would begin, were it there, is marked "Classified". Whee!....

• Roswell researcher TOM CAREY writes as follows:

  "You criticize Stan Friedman for not being specific enough in his recent comments concerning the nasty and bizarre anti-Roswell armchair debunker Robert Todd. Yet, on at least two prior occasions when I submitted specific point-by-point refutations of Todd's `droppings' to your esteemed publication which clearly exposed Todd's tortured conclusions that turn logic and reasoning on their respective heads (to gain the best perspective, Todd's `ploppings' are best read upside down), you refused to publish any of it, stating in defense of your decision that your readers were growing tired of controversy.

  "But, here we are again. What you and other anti-Roswellian editors, like Dennis Stacy of the MUFON UFO Journal and Barry Greenwood cf "Just Cause" really mean is any `flopping', belch or even a fart that issues forth from a closed-minded partisan like Todd will find a hose in your pages because it serves your purpose. By refusing to publish timely rebuttal arguments with which you do not agree, your readers are then left with the mistaken impression that there are none. I believe that this editorial technique is called `spiking'..."

  It sure looks like we can't please everyone! - Editor.

• And, the above-mentioned ROBERT TODD has this to say:

  .... The only claim I make about myself is that I have spent twenty-three years researching the government's involvement with UFOs. During that time, I uncovered literally thousands of pages of previously unreleased UFO-related documents, including the first authentic top-secret U.S. document ever released to the public. When I started out, I was absolutely convinced that the government was engaged in a massive cover-up. But twenty-three years of research has proven otherwise.

  "A number of the documents I uncovered make specific mention of the fact that the government hasn't recovered wreckage from flying saucers, yet these documents are ignored by self-styled `experts' like Friedman, who concoct asinine reasons for why we shouldn't believe the documents mean what they say.

  "The documentary proof that Roswell didn't involve a crashed alien spaceship does exist, but is rejected by the self-appointed `experts' who have a financial stake in the alien spaceship explanation, and whose very `expertise' exists only so long as they can keep the Roswell myth alive. The Roswell case has been solved! It just isn't in the best interests of certain ufologically influential parties to accept the solution. Their reputations, and in some cases their livelihoods, depend on the perpetuation of the Roswell/MJ-l2 myth!..."

• CHRISTOPHER ALLAN of England writes:

  " Stan Friedman writes that an FBI memo of the late 194Os stated that the USAF considered UFOs top secret. He is referring to an FBI memo from San Antonio in January 1948 entitled `Protection of Vital Installations'. This FBI agent had little understanding of UFOs and was writing chiefly about the green fireball phenomena then rampant in the southwest...

  "Two months later this same agent expounded again on the subject but this time dropped the `top secret' designation. UFOs, he asserted, are only considered `secret'. Furthermore, a Los Alamos conference to discuss the matter was only classified `secret'. Therefore, if this agent is to be believed, UFOs were downgraded between January and March. He concludes on the lines of UFOs being `secret U.S. experiments'.

  "I write this to illustrate how you can take excerpts and quotes from official `waffle' to prove anything you like. Selective quoting from such documents (including the Bolender memo) is useless, as Stan Friedman should know. So why does he do it?...

  "In reply to Betty Kill: If Wilbert Smith ever worked closely with the CIA, then my aunt was the Pope!"

• And, ROBERT ANTON WILSON writes:

  "Roswell, like Dracula, always rises again, no matter how often it gets buried. Elvis continues to appear to those with ardent vision, also, and a major new Bigfoot sighting before Christmas seems as sure as a new presidential election within that time period...

  "My favorite piece on Roswell, by John Keel, appeared in FATE about three or four years ago. He listed the number of eye witnesses in each major expose from 194? to the time of his article, and by damn they multiplied faster than rabbits! More eye witnesses in each expose. Reminds me of the story of the Texan about to be tried for murder, who hired a Philadelphia lawyer by telegraph. Back came the answer: ARRIVING ON NOON TRAIN TOMORROW WITH FIVE EYE WITNESSES..."

• DICK FREEMAN, editor of the porn zine "Batteries Not Included" writes:

  "Enough of this poverty crap! You make zilch publishing your Saucer Smear & I make zilch doing BNI. It's time we really go into business together. On your next trip to Roswell, why not rent some earth moving equipment, drive out to where that damn thing crashed, & take about 50 tons of topsoil home with you. We can strain it through tea strainers, & sell what we can't use for $10 a box + S/H. There is money to be made in Roswell, and why shouldn't we be the ones making it? What have we to lose, our reputations?"

• SHIELA FRANKLIN, author of "The Excyles" (see paid ad), writes as follows:

  "...Who the Pflock is Karl Pflock? He must be another book title psychic, omniscently evaluating the content and the author's character and veracity without ever reading the book or knowing the author! I never met him and he hasn't read my book, yet he so unhesitatingly states that `he wonders why I make up stories about alien/FBI lovers?' I know he hasn't read the book because there is nothing in it about my making love with aliens. (Yuck!!) And (much to your chagrin) the sexy part with the agent was kept tastefully marginal. Now, why does Karl find it so unbelievable that FBI agents like to be romantic? They don't work for the Eunuch Bureau of Information!"

• The dreaded PHIL KLASS writes:

  "...Yes, with your monthly publication schedule you do `scoop' SUN on occasion with the `head' of the UFO news; but SUN offers its readers a penetrating look at what is behind the headline - and its real significance."

• The even more dreaded JOHN ALEXANDER of non-lethal weapons fame,writes as follows regarding NIDS (National Institute of Discovery Science), a new psychic research group that he and philanthropist Robert Bigelow of Las Vegas (and others) are associated with:

  "Saw your comment in Smear. Not snubbing, just very busy, since I'm handling multiple jobs. NIDS is just one of the things I do. You may have seen that I chaired the second major nonlethal weapons conference in March. I did the first one in November 1993. Then there have been a couple of trips to Europe for my NATO work.

  "Since you mentioned it, enclosed is a copy of our NIDS statement. There really is not much more to mention, as the organization is just getting on its feet. When appropriate, we plan to make reports available through science journals. Too much material is written about research that is at best mediocre, usually by people who don't have adequate experience in the fields they are investigating. While there are a few exceptions, we don't want to repeat that mistake."

  There is extremely little additional information in the short statement that John Alexander enclosed with his letter. - Editor.

• Researcher CHRIS ROTH, alias "Little Red Rooster", writes:

  "I very much liked the `Aviary' expose by Richard Boylan, as summarized in the Feb. 20th Saucer Smear. I think that a ufological parlor game could be developed out of this, revolving around trying to guess what different ufologists' avian code names should be. For example, you should be Mockingbird, not Bill Moore. Moore should instead be Stool-Pigeon. Invite your readers to take part!

  "I've been amused by Budd Hopkins' angry responses, in the MUFON UFO Journal and elsewhere, to the way he was portrayed on NOVA. It shows he's more and more losing his grip with ordinary reality. Now there's someone who hasn't allowed his ideas to develop for the past fifteen years!..."

• And, MONTY CANTSIN confuses us with:

  "...The aliens are either aliens, gods, or angels. Of course the beings that pagans interpret as gods are the same beings that Jews and Christians interpret as angels. Both of these types of beings (aliens and gods/ angels) exist. Materialists interpret both as aliens. Spiritualists interpret both as angels. Only real scientists like myself are able to distinguish between the two...

  "Note that Wilbert Smith claimed that the 3,000 pound metalic object was of extraterrestrial origin. Note that meteors are of extraterrestrial origin, while foundry waste is not. One would think that a 3,000 pound meteor would be of interest to a science museum, and that scientists would at least take the trouble to analyze it. But in these days of Jewish pseudo-science, I suppose that's too much to expect, even in Canada, which provides us with many of our Jewish media people..."