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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE SAUCER & UNEXPLAINED CELESTIAL EVENTS RESEARCH SOCIETY

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EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Karl T. Pflock

NON-SCHEDULED NEWSLETTER Volume 46, No. 1 January 10th, 1999

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

• Pflock Ptalk - The Fifth Column
• Miscellaneous Ravings
• Tidbits of Trash
• Books to Keep Your Bonfire Burning Brightly
• Missives From the Masses

Other than helping our Esteemed Editor avoid having to run full pages of mostly mediocre cartoons now and then, what, pray tell, am I doing here? Lessee ... It's not the thrill of being part of an enterprise feared and reviled by many leading lights of UFOdumb, though that is a plus. It's not the great journalistic prestige that attaches to this august rag. It's not even the money!

No, it's the irresistible though I trust not fatal attraction of having a regular space in which to sound off, enlighten the masses (smirk), make a fool of myself on my own terms, and generally harass the ufoological booboisie. "Smear" in and "Smear" out, for as long as Jim will let me, I'll comment upon the latest examples of ufology's current downward spiral and note the rare instances of brave souls swimming against the ufoological maelstrom, review a book now and then, propound brilliant theories, tweak the pompous, perhaps even bare an expose or two, and do my best to advance the notion that urologists should take UFOs more seriously than they take themselves.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot. I will, of course, very cleverly insinuate all sorts of shockingly close to the truth disinformation into my discourse, thus continuing to do my part to keep the lid on The Truth.

Which brings me to Timothy Good's observations ("Smear", Dec. 1) concerning my conclusion that the formerly classified record establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Uncle Sam's minions hadn't recovered any crashed saucers or hapless ETs, dead or alive, at least through the mid-50s (see my cover piece in "Fortean Times", #114). Mr. Good opines that information concerning recovered crashed saucers and croaked aliens would be "compartmented" and thus not be included in mere Secret and Top Secret documents.

Balderdash! Why is it that someone as bright as Good, someone capable of getting the goods (heh, heh) on Bob "Cosmic BS" Dean, can't see the forest for the trees? Why is it that Good and other ufologists assume G men would necessarily classify UFO-related information at the level ufologists think it deserves? (More on the "why" of such delusions in future "Pflock Ptalk".)

The documents on which I base my conclusions were communications between and transcripts of discussions among the men charged with the responsibility of cracking the saucer mystery, set down decades before the Freedom of Information Act became law. In them, these senior people made clear to each other there was no physical evidence in hand. If there had been such, these guys wouldn't have lied to each other; they simply would not have mentioned it, or if they had to, would have up-graded the classification level of their writings and meetings. This was the real world, a world of grownups, not the wet-dream spook-land of pimply faced conspiracy freaks and those who exploit them.

Which gives me the perfect segue to the recent revelations of Bob and Ryan Wood, Tim Cooper, Joe Firmage ... Oops! Out of Space. Tune in next time, saucer fiends! ...

Editor's Note: Karl Pflock is well known to "Smear" readers & to the UFO Field in general, and we are very proud to have him Aboard!

• We have a long "Personal Communication, Confidential" from famed ufologist William Moore, the gist of which is as follows: He still believes that the MJ-12 documents may be genuine, and he insists that if they are fabricated, he did not do it, nor does he know who did. He again discusses the possibility that it was done by Phil Klass, and goes on to discuss several other "suspects": He entertains the possibility that Richard Doty was an unwitting tool of higher-ups in the AFOSI hierarchy; He mentions Jaime Shandera (who disappeared mysteriously over a year ago, according to Moore) as a remotely possible suspect; Ditto in regard to Stanton Friedman, Bruce Maccabee, and even Whitley Strieber. He concludes that if the documents are indeed fabrications, the most likely explanation is that he, Shandera and Doty were all dupes of some Government plan, for reasons that are not clear.

  As for Phil Klass, he almost protesteth too much! We have from Klass another letter, reproduced further along in this issue, in which he states that he recently just happened to come across a copy of his June 4th, 1987 letter to the FBI, patriotically reporting the existence of apparently Classified documents which, if genuine, should not be available to the public. This, of course, is the original group of now-famous MJ-12 documents which Moore obtained and released in that era.

  Many other similarly suspicious official documents have surfaced much more recently, all designed to make us believe that the Government has interplanetary "hardware" in its possession. Of course, if Roswell was a mere terrestrial event, as we at "Smear" believe, then all these documents are probably null & void!

  Meanwhile, Barry Greenwood, editor of "U.F.O. Historical Revue", has found what he believes to be a fatal flaw in one of the recent MJ-12 documents currently on the Internet. He has given us a preview of his information, and we can tell you that it should be taken very seriously, particularly because Greenwood is one of the extremely few objective researchers in all of ufology. The information will be published in the next issue of his zine, available at a cost of $1.50 from: P.O. Box 176, Stoneham, Ma. 02180.

  Within the UFO field, acceptance of MJ-12 has generally been less widespread than acceptance of the Roswell Incident. A new player in the game is one Joe Firmage, a millionaire hippie type who has launched a "research institute" called the International Space Sciences Organization, on the Internet. Regarding MJ-12 he says, with typical "saucer logic": "The mere existence of such documents as these, containing the verifiable details that they do, is powerful evidence for the reality of the basic storyline in the history they recount". In other words, even if the documents themselves are fake, the incidents they describe must have happened. Egads! ...

  

• The MUFON Journal, under its new editor Dwight Connelly, continues to become more & more Speculative - to put it politely. The lead article in the December 1998 issue is by Roger Leir, the foot doctor who sometimes removes alien implants. He is pictured on the cover of the zine with co-workers Whitley Strieber and (ugh!) Derrel Sims.

  Leir's article is about an implant opeation that was filmed in a two-hour television special. Among the rules Leir laid down for the TV crew: "Not to use debunkers or skeptics (in the TV presentation); Not to use the names of our medical participants; Not to use the name of the surgical patient or show his face; To highlight the second hour of the production mainly with our material..." This anonymity destroys any scientific value of the procedure, and the absence of skeptics guarantees that there will be a lack of objectivity. So why bother with the operation at all?

  We of "Smear" haven't fully made up our mind(s) just what the abduction phenomenon really is, but one thing is certain: So far, none of these alleged implants has been shown to have any function, such as control of the implanted individual. This fact is admitted by all. No one has even attempted to demonstrate a use that these anomalous bits of material can be put to. This makes implant research absurd in our opinion, at least up to and including the present time. (But keep on trying!)...

• As we have mentioned before, midnight of Dec. 31st, 1999 will be something special - not because it begins the new millennium (which actually starts exactly one year later) but because of the very real problem called 'Y2K". Many computers in Government and in private industry are expected to "crash" because they can't deal with a date in any year beyond the year 1999.

  Amazingly, many groups of political and religious right-wing extremists have seized upon this computer problem to foretell race war and "end-times battles" of all sorts, beginning Jan. lst, 2000. Says one extremist:

  "Y2K could very well trigger a financial meltdown, leading to an international depression, which would make it possible for the antichrist or his emissaries to establish a one-world currency or a one-world economic system, which will dominate the world commercially until it is destroyed". The Internet is full of this sort of raving, we are told.

  Here at "Smear" Headquarters, we intend to take some extra money out of our bank account in late December of 1999, but beyond that we'll just hope for the best. On the other hand, some prophecies are self-fulfilling, and we would not be at all surprised to find in late 1999 such events as a (temporary) stock market crash, an increase in domestic terrorist attacks, and such. So - HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Shudder!) ...

• In Ufoology, pre-millennium madness has already begun. Peter Gersten, self-appointed director of CAUS (Citizens Against UFO Secrecy) predicted some sort of a UFO landing on Dec. 7th, 1998 on Mount Elden, near Flagstaff, in northern Arizona. (According to another version, the landing was to be at Constellation, Az.) Nothing happened, but hard core believers claimed this was because of unusual weather conditions, i.e., a severe snow storm on Dec. 6th, deliberately caused by the Government to prevent the landing!

  We love Gersten's remark about all this: "It is irrelevant whether it is a hoax or not. Let go of your need to only believe what you are told is real and not real. The (star) EQ Pegasi was a 'signal'. Simply beCAUS it was possibly hoaxed does not lessen its effect. The Universe works in strange ways. You are confining your ability to see through the veil of illusion by only looking in one direction. Let go of the need to see the land and look to the skies." (Or, as "Smear" would put it, "keep your Eye on the Sky!")

  Yes, Peter Gersten, former Bronx, N.Y. attorney, has become a hippie guru, working out of the mystic city of Sedona, Arizona. Barry Greenwood, currently editor of "U.F.O. Historical Revue", resigned abruptly as director of CAUS in early 1998 when Gersten took over. However, Larry Bryant, who bills himself as head of the CAUS Washington, D.C. office, continues to make Freedom of Information requests in the name of CAUS, and seems to be at least cooperative with Gersten. It is all very strange, this being currently the relatively conservative wing of ufology! Richard Hoagland of Mars monolith fame is also involved in all this, as is Art Bell, who is now snugly back on the airwaves...

• Well, you know things are slow when "Smear" runs a review of an admittedly fictional UFO movie, but here goes:

  We just recently came across a movie on TV called "Out There", released in 1995, starring unknown (to us) actors. It turns out to be a moderately good comedy. The plot revolves around an incident back in the early '70s when the father of the film's heroine was abducted by aliens. We are at first led to believe these were fake aliens in a movie crew, but later it turns out that they were real aliens - or more precisely, humans whose DNA has been altered by the ETs so as to make them pro-alien, or whatever. The hero of the film has accidentally come across photographs of the abduction, and decides to find out just what the pictures represent.

  The funniest scene in the whole movie is near the beginning, when after much effort he succeeds in finding the Air Force's Public Information Office, which is manned by a bumbling fool of an AF officer. When the officer is reluctantly made to realize that these are serious pictures, he rants that the AF has spent millions of dollars investigating MJ-12, Hanger i8 and Area 51, and doesn't want to spend any more money investigating anything connected with UFOS. He then throws the hero out of his office.

  Later it turns out that the AF officer himself is one of the earthlings who has been programmed to be pro-alien.

  The plot twists and turns, with many amusing politically-tinted asides, including about Richard Nixon. In the end, the pro-alien people are soundly defeated by being made to listen to accordion music, which is a sound that for some reason they cannot stand!

  It turns out that the real aliens are in league with the U.S. real estate industry, and are here simply to expand their markets. Thus their motivation isn't nearly as sinister as in most science fiction films.

  But the real, secret reason we bring all this up is to tell you that the hero of the movie is named Dilbert MOSELEY - Dilbert no doubt being the business-oriented comic script character, and Moseley being your humble "Smear" editor. Was this name chosen at random, by mere co-incidence? Hardly! We shall try to learn more about this matter. If any of our readers has a video of this movie, or any inside info about it, please let us know!

• .... The long-delayed FOX Network UFO debunking Special finally appeared on Dec. 28th. It runs one hour and is called "World's Greatest Hoaxes - Secrets Finally Revealed". UFO debunker Kal K. Korff gave us a detailed preview of this show, in which he is one of the main participants. This preview was printed in our Aug. 20th, 1998 issue. The show was just about as predicted, with exposes of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Switzerland's Billy Meier, and the Ray Santilli alien autopsy video. Missing for some reason was the expected expose of recent Mexico City UFO videos.

  Good old FOX - debunking some of their own material. This is indeed the height of hypocricy!

PAID AD - PAID AD - PAID AD

See: www.nais.com/~THACK

This is no con - it's documented, in spades! It's free. Dig it. My offer increases: $1000 to anyone who can knock it logically down.

(You listening, Phil Klass?)

• This year's National UFO Conference (NUFOC), our 36th consecutive annual event, will take place in San Antonio, Texas, hosted by former MUFON Journal editor Dennis Stacy. The exact date and other details will be announced shortly...

• There seems to be confusion and disarray at the famed Roswell (N. M.) Museum since the departure of Deon Crosby as director, last August. No new director has yet been appointed...

• Subliminal Vision expert Erik Beckjord is moving to San Francisco, where he intends to run for mayor! (Shudder!) However, he has shut down his Bigfoot museum permanently, for lack of funds...

• Dr. Frank Stranges of the National Investigations Committee on Unidentified Flying Objects has kindly sent us a "Certificate of Award" for "Outstanding Achievement in Unselfish Dedication and Devotion". We are not quite sure what this means, but we sincerely thank the good Doctor for this, and also for his very kind remarks about us in the current issue of his "UFO Journal" (P.O. Box 5, Van Nuys, California 91408) ...

• Legendary underwater treasure hunter Mel Fisher of Key West died of cancer on Dec. lgth, 1998. He was 76 years old. By co-incidence, your editor has been invited to speak on Peruvian treasure hunting on Jan. 12th, 1999 at the local Mel Fisher Museum. This is the first time we have been recognized locally for our long-ago adventures in Peru.

But let us not sell this book short. The author has done a tremendous amount of work. The book consists of over 500 pages of detailed, well-written narrative, amply illustrated. Every major legend, unproven allegation and unsubstantiated UFO claim of the past fifty years is in here somewhere.

Perhaps if "The Secret History" was presented as a definitive commentary on the credulous times in which we live, it would have an important place in our history. Presented as fact, it unfortunately is ludicrous, and a waste of the author's time as well as ours. Pity!

Hesemann is the author of several previous books and also the editor of something called "Magazine 2000".

• Famed UFO debunker PHIL KLASS writes:

  "In regard to the 'raging debate' as to whether I might have been the person who created the original MJ-12 documents: While trying to catch up on my long-over-due filing, I came across my letter of June 4th, 1987 to the FBI - sending them a copy of the MJ-12 documents which Moore et al had just released. A photocopy is enclosed.

  "You will note from the third paragraph that I then (mistakenly) believed the 'Cutler memo' (which Moore and Shandera claim they found in the National Archives) was authentic, because it bore the stamp of the National Archives.

  "For your information, I never got any response from the FBI - nor did my letter seemingly trigger any FBI investigation - as far as is known.

  "If I had created the counterfeit MJ-12 documents, I would not be likely to have brought them to the attention of the FBI. Of course, if I counterfeited the MJ-12 documents, perhaps the enclosure is a counterfeit which I only wrote today to fool you!"

  Klass indeed enclosed what purports to be his June 4th, 1987 letter to the FBI. - Editor.

• DR. GARY POSNER, Founder & Executive Director of the Tampa Bay (Fl.) Skeptics, and a close friend of Phil Klass, writes as follows:

  "I wish to announce that, as per Bill Moore's urging (see his letter in the Dec. 1st issue of 'Smear') I have undertaken and completed a thorough review into the matter of Phil Klass' involvement in the creation of the MJ-12 hoax. Contrary to Moore's concern that I might suppress my findings 'for fear of the pall such a revelation could cast on the rest of the skeptical movement', I am prepared to now reveal the shocking results of my investigation.

  "Yes indeed, Phil Klass is the culprit responsible for having forged the relevant MJ-12 documents. In addition to the overwhelming circumstantial evidence as laid out so persuasively in Moore's aforementioned letter, I have managed to elicit a confession from Klass (during a telephone conversation in which I successfully Tripped him up, if you get my drift).

  "Unsuspecting that I was about to betray his confidence, Klass not only admitted to the MJ-12 hoax, but also confessed to having masterminded the following deceptions:

  1. The Kenneth Arnold case (Klass wrote his script and therefore deserves credit for the term 'flying saucer').
  2. Roswell (Aviation Week staff members staged the entire event. Klass was disguised as one of the aliens).
  3. J. Allen Hynek (Again, Klass in disguise - which explains why 'Hynek' always refused to appear on the same stage with him....

  "I regret that, by betraying his confidence, my long friendship with Phil may be in jeapordy. However, I hold out hope that he will now do the right thing by acknowledging his past transgressions, and that all will be forgiven,"

• Roswell researcher BOB DURANT writes as follows:

  "Central to the 'Mogul' explanation for Roswell is the claim that Jesse Marcel Jr.'s 'hieroglyphs' were the geometric figures on Prof. C.B. Moore's radar reflector tape. There is a simple way to test that claim.

  Artist & industrial designer Miller Johnson worked with Marcel and Moore to produce replicas of what each recalls seeing in July 1947. The two replicas can be compared. If they substantially match, the skeptics are proven correct. Above is a copy of each, with the scale intact. The Moore tape is one inch wide. The Marcel figures are within the lips of the 'I' beam, and are about 1/4 inch high.

  "The linear density of figures diverges by a factor of four, the vertical extent of the figures by a factor of three; Moore's figures are empty but Marcel's are filled in; Moore's figures are broad loops but Marcel's are small and tightly hewn. Those are the major differences. There are no similarities.

  "Nor is there any mechanism by which the Moore tape could produce the Marcel figures. For example, if one assumes that the Moore figures somehow 'bled' on to a balsa stick, one must cut the Moore tape horizontally into quarter inch strips, and compare the strips to the Marcel figures. This match is even worse than the full tape, if that were possible.'

  

• JOHN FORD, former head of the Long Island (N.Y.) UFO Network, and now in jail, writes as follows:

  "... Thank you for including me in the recent issue of 'Saucer Smear'. I have one point I'd like to ask you to put in a future issue: Please mention my lawsuit and the sixty million dollar judgment I was awarded against Bill Knell. The grounds were libel and defamation of character, and covers his incessant slander and character assassination against me. I think the UFO research community would be interested in the story, since Bill Knell is such a character unto himself.

  "I have some interesting information to share with you: Last week the FBI picked up on a federal indictment Republican Party leader for Suffolk County N.Y. John Powell. The arrest also included 18 other individuals who were all involved in a 'chop shop', where stolen trucks would be taken and broken down for parts. In addition there were separate charges which libel Mr. Powell as being involved in rigging a scam in which he took bribes as a Brookhaven town official, for illegal dumping by carters in the Brookhaven town dump. A number of town officials were named in the action besides Powell.

  "Now what does this all mean to my case? John Powell is the leader of the Republican Party and one of the politicians I was accused of plotting to kill. It will have an effect on my case, and it remains to be seen how it will go.

  "I thought this would be interesting to you, and should underscore my position regarding the openly corrupt nature of Suffolk politics...

• Ace researcher CHRISTOPHER RUTH writes;

  "...Another great tidbit I've heard lately is from Washington State, where a hunter supposedly encountered an alien in the woods, bonked him over the head with a shovel or something, killed him, and stuffed him into his freezer at home. Now some Ray Santilli type middleman is trying to sell to the media photos of this frozen being with the nasty head wound, without of course revealing the identity of this alien killer. It sounds like sasqatch lore on the face of it, except this thing supposedly looks like a classic grey.

  Have you come across this story? ...

  Not till now! - Editor.

• The noted researcher KOW PFLOP writes:

  "Sorry to disappoint George Hansen, but Kurt Peters and I are not one & the same. Peters is an interloper who attempted to capitalize on my work on mutes and beat my time with Linda Moldy Cow. Fortunately, he was quickly exposed, and now ekes out a living writing porn featuring beastial necrophilia and former beauty queens turned paranormal 'investigators' who really get into their work!"

• WARREN GAMMEL writes:

  "Enclosed is my 'Love Offering'.

  "Being technologically challenged (no plans to buy a computer any time in the near future) I, for one, would be greatly disappointed to see 'Smear' go online and you discontinue publishing hard copy. Many people tell me I need to get a computer and get on the Net, and I always ask them if they can browse the Net while they're in the bathroom, in bed, in the kitchen, or while they're at work. That's why I like printed news - you can read it anywhere! I receive about a dozen subscriptions every month (not all of them get read), but 'Smear' is read cover to cover every time, Keep up the excellent work!"

• Researcher HERBERT TAYLOR writes as follows:

  "... I've come to regard 'Smear' with considerable affection, and look forward to receiving this interesting little zine. Whereas 'mainstream' publications like IUR and the MUFON Journal usually follow the 'party line', 'Smear' has no sacred cows, and tells it like it is. That's why it's such a good read..."

• And, GREG SULLIVAN writes:

  "Your publication brings non-scheduled joy throughout the year. I wish I could have made it to the National UFO Conference last November, but I had already commited to Fortfest '98 in Washington, D.C. Nothing to do all year and everyone schedules for the same weekend! I'm dying to see Mr. Huggins' paintings up close and personal! Perhaps next year... "

• BOB ZANOTTI, a major radio personality in far-away Switzerland, writes as follows:

  "I just wanted to let you know about a source for Long John (Nebel) tapes on the Internet. It's run by a guy named Max Schmid. Actually, his main interest is the old Jean Shepherd shows on WOR, but a check of his website reveals that there is also a substantial collection of Long John UFO shows, featuring all the great names, including your good self. They are mainly of the late '50S & early '60s vintage, i.e., the hay day. Anyone interested should check out: www.intercall.net/~jsadur/shepcat.htm