• Bill Cooper in Big Trouble With the Feds!
• Miscellaneous Ravings
• Tidbits of Trash
• Update on the 35th National UFO Conference
• Ye Olde Book Review Section
• Missives From the Masses

We met Cooper several times at Tim Beckley's western conventions in the early '90s, and we spent some enjoyable interludes drinking with him in the hotel bars. On one occasion Bill was with his oriental wife Annie Mordhorst and their young daughter. Cooper made no secret about his disdain for the income tax laws. In fact, he and Beckley eventually had a falling out over the mere fact that Beckley mailed him a form regarding the tax liability on the money hr (Cooper) earned from his lectures at these conventions - all of which were very well attended, because Cooper is an excellent speaker, whether one agrees with him or not.

Bill Cooper does not describe himself as a militiaman, but there is no doubt that he is very sympathetic to this extreme right-wing and sometimes violent movement. In regard to the present crisis, Cooper posted on his Internet site, in big red letters: "WARNING: Any attempt by the federal government or anyone else to execute the unconstitutional and unlawful arrest warrants... will be met by armed resistance". Federal agents, fearful of another Ruby Ridge or Waco type incident, seem to be in no hurry to move in on Cooper. They know where he is and will move cautiously, but added, "Obviously at some point, we will effect the arrest". We have seen no follow-up on this front page article!

Cooper's UFO views are of interest. As a former Naval Intelligence officer, he claims to have seen highly classified documents proving that the U.S. government has captured saucers, interacted with the aliens, etc. However, at a given point in time he reversed his course and decided that these documents were simply disinformation, to make us believe the aliens are here, possibly just to soften us up for the dreaded forthcoming New World Order.

Bill Cooper is the author of a book called "Behold a Pale Horse", which sold quite well a few years ago. We never actually read it, but we did find the page where he lists us as a CIA agent, along with several other ufologists. Cooper later told us that he has changed his mind about this too.

Cooper has a regular radio show on the Christian Broadcast Network, and your editor once did an hour-long interview on this program which is apparently heard mainly in Europe (if at all). Cooper is also the editor of an occasionally-published newspaper called "Veritas" - latin for Truth. Right-wing views abound in all of this, but we never heard Cooper call for armed resistance to the government except when personally attacked, as Cooper now feels has happened to him. In short, we have here a very bright but very strange man - with a terrible temper, incidentally. All in all, we liked him, though we never subscribed to his views on UFOS, politics, or anything else.

Our thanks to Phoenix ufologist Ted Hunt for some of the above information.

• "Smear" has learned quite a few details about an upcoming Fox Network special called "World's Greatest Hoaxes - Their Secrets Finally Revealed". This show will feature (among others) Kal K. Korff, author of skeptical books about Billy Meier and about Roswell. We are typing these lines on July 25th, but because of your editor's travel schedule, you won't be reading this issue till almost a month from now - and by then the show may already have aired, and our "scoop" will be lost. But that's show business!

  We are told that this Fox special reveals the names of the people involved in the notorious Ray Santilli alien autopsy video, and you will see the people who helped make it confessing on camera for the first time. There is also an interview with Billy Meier's ex-wife, who has recently been denouncing his UFO photos as fakes. Another interview is with a man who helped fake the infamous Roger Patterson Bigfoot film back in 1967. There is also negative information on some Loch Ness photos from the '70s, and negative information in regard to last August's Mexico City super-clear UFO footage. This makes a total of five different categories of expose in this one program, and other such shows are planned for the near future. It is ironic that Fox, which has never passed up an opportunity to milk a good hoax for their own profit, is now doing a complete reversal!

  See also Kal K. Korff's letter to the editor, further along in this issue.

• Peter Gersten, the new executive director of CAUS (Citizens Against UFO Secrecy) is really going wild. He has put out a video of a mock trial in which various pro-UFO speakers offer "testimony", with abductee Travis Walton as the "judge". The amusing thing here is that Gersten is a practicing attorney (formerly from New York City, now in Arizona), who certainly should know better!

  Next April, Gersten plans a "real" mock trial at a public meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. The format will be CAUS vs. CICOP, a "fictional" skeptics group, patterned very closely, no doubt, on CSICOP, which is a real skeptics group. There will be expert witnesses on both sides, and a real (?) judge and attorneys. The audience will be the jury!

  This may be good showmanship, but as a method of getting at the truth, it stinks! The mock trials we remember best were in Cuba, soon after Fidel Castro came into power. The audience was the jury, and each & every defendant was executed by the military almost immediately after the verdict. We do hope that the members of "CICOP" fare better than this!

  Ain't Science grand? ....

• "Smear" has mysteriously obtained a copy of a videotape that Ed Walters of Gulf Breeze fame made one night in February of 1988 with his friend Duane Cook, who was then editor of the local newspaper. Amid much cursing and hysteria, the two ride in Ed's truck to a given point where Ed stops the truck, gets out, and immediately takes a picture of a UFO. Cook can't quite see the UFO, as it is (supposedly) only in view for a moment, but Cook does see Ed taking the picture - which is almost as good.

  Or is it? This video is hilarious when viewed in the proper spirit, and it seems that poor Duane Cook was the victim of a hoax that night.

  Ed has never distributed this video for some reason, but we did see it once with Ed at his home in Gulf Breeze, back about 1989. Unfortunately, our copy is in strangely poor condition, so we are not going to distribute it, either.

• California's "UFO Magazine" has apparently been saved from bankruptcy by a take-over by William Birnes, who is co-author with Lt. Col. Philip Corso of the recent book "The Day After Roswell". Vicki Ecker (formerly Vicki Cooper) remains editor-in-chief of "UFO Magazine" and her husband Don Ecker remains news editor. The zine will now go from bimonthly to monthly; but the current August issue is filled with endless drivel about Roswell, as well as right-wing military-oriented propaganda which we find distasteful. This issue did not impress us favorably at all, except for a good lead article about the "disappointing" nature of the latest photos of the Face on Mars.

  As for Corso, whom we met briefly at the Roswell festival last year, he has fallen upon hard times. A severe heart attack at the age of 83 caused him to cancel his intended lecture at this year's Roswell festival, as well as other personal appearances. Furthermore, he seems to have come out on the short end regarding profits from his book.

  Says Corso, in a statement prepared shortly before his June 9th heart attack:

  "Certain elements have laid claim to all my future writings. They have involved me in legal proceedings. I will not foster on the world cheap sensationalism, half-truths, errors passed off as reality, etc., for the purpose of personal gain."

  Who is behind Corso's peculiar legal problems? He does not tell us, but we can only assume that it is Birnes. It seems that the old warrior somehow got in over his head in dealing with his erstwhile co-author. Only time will tell where this strange situation ends up!

  Incidentally, this year's Roswell festival predictably did not do nearly as well as last year's 50th anniversary bash, and we understand that the me-too event in Aztec, New Mexico did not do well at all.

  Update to the above: Philip Corso had another heart attack and died on July 16th. A plaque in his honor is to be placed by the Roswell Museum authorities at the "true crash site". We hear that researcher Don Schmitt has recently come up with still another Roswell crash site, making at least five by now! We wonder which of these deserves the label of the "true crash site"! Egads! ...

• Former Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) executive Fred Whiting was recently asked why he has become a skeptic on the Roswell Incident, and he had this to say:

  "I am convinced that the debris recovered on the Brazel ranch was from Project Mogul. This became apparent to me when (Professor) Charles Moore explained the 'alien writing' on the 'I-beams' as tape from a novelty store with flowers - exactly the description of several people (including Mac Brazel's daughter) who handled the material. All of the sensational claims of alien bodies and craft have come from unreliable witnesses whose testimony has been thoroughly discredited. That some of these witnesses have been enthusiastically supported and promoted by self-styled UFO 'investigators' is shameful..."

  Your editor phoned Professor Moore about this statement and learned what other more thorough Roswell researchers (such as Karl Pflock) have known for quite awhile: The flower tape on the Mogul assembly probably consisted of six pinkish purple flowers of various shapes, repeated in the same sequence (left) - which could very easily give the impression of hieroglyphics. Furthermore, there were thick-walled aluminum rings, which were also mentioned in the testimony of Brazel's daughter. What the hell more do we need in order to accept the fact that the debris found on the Brazel ranch was indeed Mogul wreckage? (Our thanks to researcher Herb Taylor for this item.) ...

• Rarely does anything really positive occur in this crazy, confusing UFO field; but in late June, the prestigious Society for Scientific Exploration, headed by Peter Sturrock of Stanford University, issued a 50-page report urging a serious scientific study of UFOs & associated phenomena. This is the first time since the Condon Report (roughly thirty years ago) that there has been this level of scientific interest in the UFO subject, and we can only hope that the present study will lead to funding for further research. The study was financed by Laurance Rockefeller, now in his late 80s, who apparently has a genuine interest in the off-beat on both a scientific and spiritual level....

• An intriguing newspaper article from June 7th informs us that SETI scientists have picked up about one hundred unexplained radio signals over a period of time, during routine surveillance of Space. These faint, pure tones have no natural origin, and could have been created artificially, according to the scientists involved. They do not rule out the possibility that this strange radio traffic could have extraterrestrial origins. The trouble is that the tones are never repeated, at least not so far.

The National UFO Conference is governed by a board called the Permanent Organizing Committee (POC), which till recently consisted of: James Moseley (Permanent Chairman), Tom Benson, Timothy Green Beckley, Al Greenfield, Rick Hilberg, Antonio Huneeus, Al Manak, William Moore, and Curt Sutherly. Earlier this year, Karl Pflock and Matt Graeber were added to this list, making eleven members in all.

For more details about the Convention, write for one of our fliers.

• Our friend Karl Pflock has just resigned loudly from MUFON. In a recent letter to MUFON czar Walt Andrus, Pflock says in part: "There was a time when I thought the MUFON UFO Journal necessary to my research .... Recent issues have established this is no longer the case...It is clear that my $30 per year dues can be applied more productively to other things, e.g., good beer."... Herbert Taylor of New York City, who is another well known anti-Roswell MUFONite, has recently resigned for much the same reasons!... According to our spies, only about 300 people showed up at the recent MUFON conference in Denver. Membership in the organization has plunged to under 3,400 from a peak of over 5,000, and many people are upset specifically about the inadequate amount of research and investigation being done.... Come on, Walt Andrus, SHAPE UP!...

• Erik Beckjord's little Bigfoot museum, somewhere in San Francisco, has closed permanently for financial reasons. Beckjord says he will not reopen unless he gets corporate sponsorship. (Fat chance of that, with his obnoxious personality!)...

• Those who wish to write to former UFO investigator John Ford can reach him at the following address: Ward 43, Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center, P.O. Box 158, New Hampton, N.Y. 10958. The address speaks for itself! ...

• Barry Greenwood continues to publish his fine UFO zine under a new title, "U.F.O. Historical Revue" - deliberately spelling "Revue" the old-fashioned way. Greenwood's magazine used to be called "Just Cause", until Peter Gersten darted out of the woodwork recently with many zany ufological activities in the name of the CAUS organization. - Greenwood wisely wants to distance himself from this...

• Jerry Clark's UFO Encyclopedia, originally in three Volumes, is now available in a second edition consisting of two volumes - a total of 1,180 pages! ...

• According to Phoenix radio personality Erskine Payton, the famous March 13th, 1997 lights over Phoenix were (a) a triangular-shaped stealth military aircraft and (b) flares dropped during a training mission over the Barry Goldwater test range. He's probably right! ...

• MUFON Deputy Director John Schuessler has a book out called "The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident", which is said to be the inside story of one of the strangest and most important flying saucer encounters on record. We haven't yet seen the book (hint, hint!), but it is available at: 9862 West Unser Ave., Littleton, Co. 80128. Price: $19.95 ...

  An episode of "The Unexplained" on the A&E Network on July 9th gave a very good rendition of this classic case ...

• The Sickest thing we have heard in quite awhile is that Tom Carey, Don Schmitt, and Mark Furhrman of O.J. Simpson Trial fame, are cooperating on a forthcoming book. How the three Stange Ones got together for this book project is not clear...

• The MUFON UFO Journal under its new editor Dwight Connelly (who was also editor many years ago) has hit a new scientific Low. The lead article in the July issue is about the "return of the Biblical giants" to Israel! It seems that several people there have seen 7 to 9 foot tall creatures in connection with UFO sightings....

• England's Philip Mantle, a leading light of that country's well-known BUFORA organization, is quitting ufology supposedly for personal reasons. Or it might be because the Ray Santilli alien autopsy video, which Mantle heartily endorsed, is going down in a sea of increasing skepticism...

• Robert Bigelow's National Institute of Discovery Science (NIDS), under the leadership of John Alexander, is sponsoring a scientific essay contest with three prizes of $5,000 each! ...

• Self-appointed titles in ufology can be amusing. There is the "Supreme Commander" (guess who that is!); Stanton Friedman is "the Flying Saucer Physicist"; Wendelle Stevens claims to be "the Godfather of UFOS"; Tim Beckley is "Mr. UFO"; and Pat Marcattilio is "Dr. UFO". As already noted, Marcattilio is the local chairman for this year's NUFOC convention in Bordentown, New Jersey.

• This month we have had the pleasure of reading a delightful new offering from Prometheus Books, the publishing arm of the dreaded CSICOP organization. The book is "UFO Sightings - The Evidencel" by arch-skeptic Robert Sheaffer, and it is basically an update of a similar tome he did for Prometheus nearly twenty years ago. This time we have read most of its 320 pages almost thoroughly, and one reason we found it delightful is that there are a number of favorable references to your humble "Smear" editor therein, and even a photograph of said personage!

  The three leading ufological skeptics in CSICOP, in proper pecking order, are Phil Klass, James Oberg, and Robert Sheaffer. This has been the situation for many years, ever since the death of Dr. Donald Menzel of Harvard, some of whose ufological solutions were so ridiculous that they were rejected by Project Bluebook.

  Robert Sheaffer currently writes the "Psychic Vibrations" column for CSICOP's "Skeptical Inquirer", and among his many other credits are a couple of lectures at NUFOC conventions over the years, as the "Token skeptic".

  Back to the book: Referring to a complex incident back in 1954, the author has this to say: "If Moseley's supposed 'silencing' by the Men in Black is indicative of the quality of work they do, we can all heave a sigh of relief, because Moseley remains one of the most unsilenced individuals in all UFOdom. At the time of this writing, forty years after he was allegedly 'silenced' by sinister forces, James Moseley continues to issue his newsletter, which is keenly enjoyed by many for its witty, gossippy, irreverent tone. Having sold the rights to the name 'Saucer News', Moseley continued to publish it under a different name each month: 'Saucer Cruise', 'Saucer Booze', 'Saucer Jews' - whatever propriety will allow, and then some, before settling on the now-famous title 'Saucer Smear'. Proudly claiming to be 'shockingly close to the truth', Moseley's newsletter can now be browsed on the World Wide Web. As all regular readers of the publication are surely aware, Moseley's sense of humor is almost legendary. One may perhaps label him 'the Voltaire of the UFO movement', in view of his perceptive and witty satires..."

  Other than the above quote, the best part of the book, in our opinion, is Shaeffer's discussion of the rather mundane sighting that ex-president Jimmy Carter had while he was governor of Georgia. The only reason the sighting made news was because of Carter's prominence. Sheaffer took it upon himself to go to an incredible amount of trouble to solve the Carter case, which had been incorrectly dated, among other problems. Sheaffer learned that the object Carter saw was almost certainly Venus, but the point is that it would have been very easy for this case to remain unsolved forever. The clear implication is that most (or maybe all??) UFO cases could be solved if only someone had the time and patience to do so.

  Another part of the book we enjoyed was Sheaffer's discussion of "The Unidentified", which Jerry Clark co-authored with Loren Coleman in the 1970's. At that time Clark was a leading proponent of the paranormal view of UFOs - a view that he now vigorously disavows. "The Unidentified" even has a chapter on fairies, with Clark taking a positive attitude toward these little creatures. These days, Clark bristles whenever his early opinions on this subject are brought up. He is now a hard-core nuts and bolts ufologist.

  Although your "Smear" editor is a supporter of the paranormal view on UFO's, we found little in this book we could disagree with, until the last chapter, where the author goes overboard in condemning ufology and all other forms of "superstition". Unfortunately, there is apparently an actual instinctive need, within the human mind, to believe in something beyond science - be this conventional religion, New Age religion, or ufology. Even CSICOP's super-skeptical Martin Gardner admits to being a theist. There is just no way such beliefs can be stamped out, nor, indeed, should they be!

  And, as fine as this book is in its many pages of detailed facts, it is not without error. Our hasty reading found several errors, including:

  • The Martian canals were seen by everyone who looked properly - not just by an imaginative few, and indeed a photo of them was carried in "Saucer News.'
  • The UFO organization called CAUS is not defunct.
  • Robert Todd was never a a supporter of the Roswell Incident at any time.
  • And your editor did not organize the National UFO Conference, though he has been its Permanent Chairman since 1971.

  All in all, this book, though poison to the True Believers, is a very fine effort indeed, and should be ranked among the very best books on the UFO subject....

• Our old friend Timothy Green Beckley ("Mr. UFO") has sent us copies of two of his current newsstand magazines, "UFO Files" and "Uncensored UFO Reports", together with the latest book published by his Global Communications outfit (P.O. Box 753, New Brunswick, N.J. 08903).

  The book is called "Secret Black Projects of the New World Order". It is written by someone named Tim Swartz, and pertains to anti-gravity UFOS, black helicopters, and mysterious flying triangles. Swartz is said to be an Emmy Award winning television producer whose research shows that all kinds of strange aircraft are flying through our skies - some of them possibly based on back-engineered alien technology. This 100-page softcover book doesn't show a price, but it probably isn't cheap!

  Write to the above address for more information on this and other juicy UFO material published by Global Communications. One of Beekley's many titles is a book written years ago by your "Smear" editor.

• England's CHRISTOPHER ALLAN writes.

  "One of your non-subscribers in the latest issue predicts the demise of 'Smear', caused by the Internet. He may be right. Meanwhile I have some words of wisdom to offer:

  We know that the modern PC hardware is, in the majority of cases, due to reverse engineering the advanced electronic components derived from the Roswell crashed saucer. Those two avid promoters of Roswell, Philip Corso and Stanton Friedman have firmly established this fact.

  "But what of the technology gained from the Aztec crash? Is this as reliable as the Roswell technology or not? Are any modern computers derived from this? I advise all Internet users, when they next update their systems, to ascertain, if at all possible, from which saucer crash their PC hardware is derived. Without this knowledge some 'net' users could be at a disadvantage..."

• Researcher KAL K. KORFF writes as follows:

  "Well, there's no keeping any good secrets from you! Yes, you are right, there is an upcoming FOX TV special and yes, I am in it, and was in charge of the research with (producer) Bob Kiviat; and yes, I did travel secretly a second time to Switzerland to sneak onto Billy Meier's farm again, and I did get to spend a wonderful time with his ex-wife Kalliope Meier, who had lots of interesting things to say; and yes, she also appears in the upcoming TV special. Regarding the other UFO and paranormal cases that are examined and exposed in the new FOX special, I can't talk about them until after the show airs, unfortunately ...

  Finally, regarding the account in your last newsletter about my going to Meier's farm, you now know that I did not have bazookas, rockets, grenades, nuclear weapons, light sabers, Howitzers or even a decent hand phaser on my much-macho (always sexy) being. I did, however, use the undercover name of 'Oscar Meyer Wiener' (I just couldn't resist!), and I signed Billy Meier's guestbook that way, followed by my usual, real-life illegible signature. The people inside Meier's cult never noticed the irony of the name I used. They were just glad that 'Meyer' was my middle (fake) name because of the ASSteem to which they hold their beloved leader!"

• Researcher ROB SWIATEK writes:

  "...In Denver recently for the MUFON Symposium, I chanced to run into Ron Regehr and his bag of Roswell photos. He laid out the sheaf of prints for me to scrutinize: Studies in black & white enlarged to an extent even Regehr himself probably doesn't know. I was about to say 'a lady's wrinkled undergarmet' and 'bananas hanging from a hook', when it dawned on me that he wasn't conducting a Rorschach test. If anything, he probably expected me to look at the blow-ups of the Bond Johnson pictures and say, 'Ah, strange hieroglyphic characters on what seems to be an I-beam', or some similar language. Couldn't, though. To be honest, a person could see almost anything that he wanted to in those grainy, extreme enlargements. Beckjord, for example, would probably see Hynek's face right next to that of Princess Diana. I came away with a better understanding of my psyche but no new insights babes at last year's into the Fort Worth photos....

• SCOTT BOND writes:

  "I was really delighted to see, in the latest 'Smear', that the NUFOC is headed for the east coast. So, for starters, send me a copy of the Convention flier. I'm really going to make an effort to get out to this one if I possibly can...

  

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