| EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
|
NON-SCHEDULED NEWSLETTER Volume 46, No. 2 February 15th, 1999 |
MAILING ADDRESS: P. 0. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041 |
It seems that on April 10th, there will be a day-long conference on the UFO abduction phenomenon, somewhere in New York City. The invited speakers are Budd Hopkins, Stanton Friedman, David Jacobs, Carol Rainey (Hopkins' wife), and Jerry Clark as (eek!) Moderator. Kevin Randle having already said all he cares to in favor of Roswell, is now coming out with an abduction book co-authored with Russ Estes and Dr. William P. Cone.
Cone is on record as being basically a skeptic, as far as believing that real aliens are involved in the abduction phenomenon. And Randle has made the politically incorrect error of lecturing on abductions as being related to anomalies earlier in human history, and even science fiction! Russ Estes is a movie producer whose views are mild but unclear to us, as we have not talked to him in quite awhile.
In any case, Randle was mildly upset that he was not invited to the conference, to provide balance or whatever. Clark, always quick to anger, screamed: "The organizers of any conference on any subject have the right to invite exactly whom they want to invite, and to have represented any point of view they endorse, feel comfortable with, or consider important. If you're not happy with the views (to be) expressed at the Intruders conference, hold your own damn conference!.."
How about that for Moderation! ...
"Smear" readers may remember that Schmitt is a former partner and co-author with Kevin Randle, but these two had a severe falling-out some time ago. One of the problems was that Schmitt insisted that he was not an employee of the U.S. Postal Service; but in the long run it was proven that he is (or at least was at that time) a rural mail carrier in real life. One well might argue that if Schmitt lied about something so easily provable, he cannot be trusted in regard to more important & controversial matters! ...
The editor is a retired gentleman named Jim Wales, who is perhaps one of the last of the hard-core followers of the late contactee George Adamski. This group was founded around 1954 by the late Laura Mundo of Detroit, who was alsa a hard-core Adamski-ite.
Strangely, these people do not believe in the Money System. Thus, when Laura came all the way from Detroit in the late 1960s to lecture to our small UFO group in New York City, we did not pay her. (We lost money on the event, and had made no agreement to pay her in any case.)
Perhaps this disbelief in the Money System is why this issue of "Update" ends with the cryptic remark.- "If you are ever lucky enough to be invited aboard a spacecraft, leave your wallets behind!"
Earlier in the issue, Wales rants at length about Percival Lowell, the still-famous astronomer who photographed straight-line markings (or "canals") on Mars roughly a century ago. Wales does not seem to understand that an optical illusion can be photographed. Ask Erik Beckjord about this!
Ufologist and retired McDonnell Douglas/Boeing engineer Robert Wood and his son Ryan recently unveiled a batch of allegedly authentic "newly Roswell/MJ-12 documents, provided to them by self-described private investigator Timothy Cooper. Along with the original MJ-12 papers and the SOMI-01 MJ-12 special operations manual which surfaced in 1994, these constitute the crashed-saucer smoking gun, say the Woods.
Reportedly, "W2" have received a six-figure book advance. Silicon Valley kid-millionaire Joseph Firmage has included most of the documents in an online book posted on his Internet website, allegedly paying W2 a hundred grand for the privilege. It is also reliably rumored that W2 have hired a TV-documentary director to help them develop a television program and home-video, and they're now peddling a CD-ROM and two self-published tomes, plus a collection of the Cooper documents and a facsimile of the SOMI-01. Well, big money does do wonders for one's commitment in the face of criticism - and makes it hard to admit being taken in, too.
To ufology's credit, most of The Field are highly skeptical. And with good reason. The documents are riddled with both obvious and subtle factual goofs, and Cooper is a suspect fellow. Myriad errors are detailed in the current issue of (shudder) "Skeptics UFO Newsletter" (#55, Jan. 1999), and Barry Greenwood's next "U.F.O. Historical Revue" will reveal a "fatal flaw" in at least one document. (See discussion further along in this issue - Ed.) Ironically, in his 1996 MJ-12 apologia "Top Secret/MAJIC", saucer physicist and W2 confidant Stan Friedman exposed as bogus certain of the documents now being touted by W2, yet he remains largely silent as his friends promote them. (Why is that, Stan?)
As for Cooper, in August 1994 he told me that his late father, while a printer at Alamagordo Army Air Field, had produced a highly classified report about a crashed saucer and alien bodies, under the personal supervision of the base commander, conveniently deceased, of course. Cooper also claimed to possess undisclosed crashed-saucer documents, including some from the FBI allegedly proving Project Mogul wasn't responsible for the Roswell debris. He sent me copies of a couple, proven to be phony by Friedman in '96 and now being called authentic by W2. Cooper said held share the FBI material with me, but never did, perhaps deciding from my reaction to his other stuff that I was not gullible enough for his purposes.
Damn! It could be me collecting all that cash!
Editor's Note: Phil Klass' excellent SUN #55 can be obtained by sending one dollar to him at: 404 "N" St. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-3702. Incidentally, Phil does believe in the Money System!
It may occur that we don't actually use your material, after you go to all the trouble of sending it. But rest assured that all submissions are sincerely appreciated...
These spoil-sports still believe that Bigfoot exists, but they are convinced that the greatest evidence for his existence is nothing more than a clever hoax.
A similar point of view was expressed in the recent FOX documentary discussed in our last issue. (Our thanks to Denis Corey for the above.)
Therein we find a weird discussion of mass disappearances of Soldiers and their equipment, in various wars. A reference is made to an alleged World War I incident that occurred on August 21st, 1915, when "members of the New Zealand Army Corps' First Field Company signed sworn statements that they saw the One-Fourth Norfolk Regiment disappear in a (sic) "unusually thick brown cloud wich (sic) seemed to move and rose upward and vanished. There were no traces of the regiment nor their equipment ..."
Several very important things are wrong here, but the most glaring is that the affidavit in question was signed by three New Zealand veterans on April 25th, 1965, at a 50th anniversary reunion celebration. Thus the affidavit did not exist in 1952, and could not have been known about at that time except by means of Psychic Powers!
For further details, send $1.50 to Barry Greenwood at P.O. Box 176, Stoneham, Ma. 02180....
"Phil's spinal surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in mid-1997 failed to ease his walking problem whose gradual deterioration forces him to use two canes when walking. Further tests have so far failed to suggest any treatment to alleviate the problem. An additional problem arose because the anesthesiologist damaged Phil's vocal chord when inserting the breathing tube prior to surgery, resulting in 'permanent laryngitis' which is deteriorating. But other than difficulty in walking and talking, Phil's spirits are reasonably good..."
We wish him well....
The speaking offer was extended to February of 1999, but now Brown tells us that their advance registration is down, and we believe him, as this has been the case recently in regard to all UFO conventions, including our own NUFOC. In any case Brown can't afford our modest fee, so we will skip going to this particular gathering, which takes place at the River Palms Resort in Laughlin from Feb. 21st through 27th.
However, we will be attending (at our own expense) the annual gathering at Gulf Breeze (Florida) on the weekend of March 20th, sponsored as usual by Project Awareness; and we will also be at the MUFON bash in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., on the July 4th weekend.
As for the 1999 NUFOC, we still have no word from local chairman Dennis Stacy as to the details. All we know so far is that it will take place some time this coming summer in San Antonio, Texas. Stay tuned! ...
We learn that the Museum has two different websites, one active and the other inactive since Novermber of 1998. No new director has been appointed, and there have supposedly been several abrupt firings of staff members and associates. Volunteers have been instructed not to discuss internal business with outsiders. And certain researchers who have come to look through the collection of UFO material recently donated by George Fawcett, have been thrown out. Egads!
We recall that "Smear" Contributing Editor Karl Pflock was a founding member of the Museum, but resigned in disgust in early 1997. The Museum personnel then ripped off his name from the founding members' plaque, and mailed the name plate to him in an unmarked envelope, broken in half! ...
If the same amount of concerted effort had been put into solving this case as was put into solving the Roswell Incident, the Cash-Landrum case would have been properly explained long ago. As things now stand, it will probably always remain a mystery!
For those who don't know, the basic incident was this: On the evening of December 29th, 1980, three people were driving on a highway near Huffman, Texas. They were Betty Cash, 52, Vickie Landrum, 57, and Vickie's 7-year-old grandson named Colby. From a distance they saw a huge, extremely bright diamond-shaped object low in the sky. Eventually it nearly blocked the highway about 150 feet in front of them, emitting a great amount of heat, light, and noise. Flames were coming out of the bottom. It hovered with small movements up and down for several minutes, and then moved up and away. Several helicopters of different sizes, perhaps as many as 23, were near the object by the time it left the area. The helicopters were apparently attempting to guide or control the object in some way. This was definitely not your typical UFO sighting!
Betty Cash spent more time outside the car than the others did, while the mystery object was hovering over the highway. Therefore her injuries were far more severe. These injuries included blistered skin, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, extreme thirst, and eventually loss of hair. Betty spent over two weeks in the hospital, where she was treated as a burn victim. During the next few months she was back in the hospital several more times, and eventually developed breast cancer. In all probability she was suffering from radiation poisoning!
Vickie Landrum had many of the same symptoms in a milder form, and so did Colby.
A key question has always been: What was the state of these people's health before the incident? Betty Cash had a heart bypass operation three years earlier, but other than that, she is said to have been in good health. Phil Klass has claimed that she had cancer prior to the incident, but he has never proven his point. The argument could be settled if John Schuessler would release unsanitized copies of Betty Is pre-UFO medical reports, but he refuses to do so, supposedly to protect her privacy.
Sadly, Betty Cash's privacy is no longer an issue. She died on Dec. 29th, 1998, a few months after this book came out, and 18 years to the day after the UFO incident. Thus, although the incident caused her endless health problems and may have shortened her life, it probably did not directly lead to her death. The other two witnesses are stiil alive, but their present health condition is not clearly stated.
John Schuessler, researcher Bob Pratt (who wrote the forward for this book) and others, proceeded to investigate the Cash-Landrum case in the months and years that followed. Mostly they got nowhere. They did meet one military CH-47 helicopter pilot named Willy Culberson who seemed to know about the incident, but he would not give them any details. They also met a police officer and others who had seen low-flying military helicopters on the same evening and at about the same time as the UFO sighting. There was also a rumor, via researcher Tom Adams, that these helicopters were indeed told to "cover" (i.e., force it to land) a large diamond-shaped experimental military craft that was temporarily out of control.
Peter Gersten, now a latter-day hippie guru, was the lawyer that Schuessler & the others chose to help them file a compensation claim against the government, in behalf of the three victims. The lawsuit was properly and vigorously pursued, beginning in 1984, but it got nowhere! In essence the government claimed not to own any such UFO, and they stated further that even if they did own it, they could not be held responsible for these injuries.
After the UFO incident, Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum were never able to work again. Like the sick and dead civilian workers at "Area 51", discussed in earlier "Smears", these unfortunate victims who were driving on a public highway at the time, seem to have no rights against the power of Big Government. No wonder Schuessler is bitter. Something terrible and very important happened that evening, but as already stated, we will probably never learn the answer.
This is a very worthwhile book. Read it! ...
We were impressed by authors' names that we recognized from the distant past - British UFO writer Harold T. Wilkins; John P. Bessor, who believed that UFOs are space animals; the late naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson; and famed science fiction writer Sprague de Camp. Most of the two dozen or so other article authors are unknown to us.
Your "Smear" editor wrote several articles for Fate in the 1950s and 1960s, but apparently these did not make it into any of the anthologies. Fate has been published for over fifty years.
How many of these stories are true, we cannot possibly say. We don't hold Fate up to the same standards of Truth as a book such as Michael Hesemann's (reviewed in our last issue), because everyone knows that Fate is more for entertainment than for science. On that assumption, this looks like a very interesting book indeed!
"Thank you for send ng me the copy of 'Saucer Smear'. I found it most amusing, especially the little cartoons. With respect to the last paragraph which references my work, I will take this opportunity to point out that your periodical 'Saucer Smear' seems to serve no function whatsoever, and thereby, using your own logic, it would be absurd to continue to keep it in print ... No malice intended..."
"Your letter of Jan. 4th has been forwarded to me, along with a copy of the Dec. lst issue of 'Smear'. Given the 'smearing' I got in this latest issue, I certainly hope the next one will do something to set things straight.The most shocking thing in 'Smear', however, is Klass' subtle hint that perhaps he DID DO IT AFTER ALL! Read carefully and dispassionately, Klass' 'reply' to my letter certainly does everything to reinforce such an argument and absolutely nothing to dispell it. Consider:
"(1) Klass does not deny it - something any reasonable person would certainly expect him to do from up front if he were indeed not guilty. Not only does he NOT deny it, but he says he is 'flattered' by my suggestion.
"(2) He hastens to point out that HE was the first to discover the 'very unusual date-format' which, HE claimed, copied a style used by ME in several letters to HIM. Then he goes on to admit that the 'hoaxer' intentionally used this unusual format 'to implicate (me) as (a) forger'. Could this not be construed as an admission by 'hoaxer' Klass that he used a date-style from my own letters in an effort to set me up?
"(3) Klass' second paragraph seems to imply that he fully expected me, in my innocence, to come forward and thank him for making this 'discovery'. Could he be trying to say that if I had done so, he would have then come forward and admitted the ruse, thus leaving me to look like a fool? It sure sounds like it, doesn't it?
"Finally, to correct the record, Klass has me making the claim that my 'research indicated the MJ-12 papers were authentic', when in fact all I said at the time was that my research had given me no reason to think that they weren't authentic. Once again, Klass has conveniently distorted the facts to serve his own ends!
"You can believe what you want, Jim. All I can say is that Klass' reply has done absolutely nothing to dispell my doubts. Maybe he did do it. If he did, he's the one who has to live with it, and he's the one who will burn in hell for it (hopefully soon) - a fate which, in any case, I happen to think he deserves for other reasons."
"Regarding the MOGUL and alien hieroglyphs on in the Jan. 10th 'Smear': The MOGUL graphics are accurately portrayed as Prof. C. B. Moore recalls his involvement when launching the MOGUL Balloon train with its GRAPHIC TAPE reinforced Radar Targets. A very disturbing factor about the hieroglyphs recalled by Jesse Marcel Jr. jumped out at me. Was it the 1/4 inch height? Was it the linear density of figures diverging by a factor of four? - Or the vertical extent of the figures by a factor of three? Could the small tightly hewn and filled-in figures described by Marcel Jr. have been modified? No, it was obvious that another factor was at play here, but why? The alien hieroglyphs on Marcel Jr.'s I-Beam are upside down! Was this a printing error or was it a deliberate attempt to confuse the I-Beam Replica's authenticity? I rest my case..."More I-Beam Ravings: I watched the Discovery Channel's version of the Roswell Incident on Sunday night, Jan. 17th. Rancher Mac Brazel in this version was given credit for retrieval of the symbol-laden Alien I-Beam. Does the Discovery Channel have evidence contrary to the Major Jesse Marcel story? Were two I-Beams recovered? If so, only one was reported to have been whisked away by the military. What became of the one Mac Brazel had recovered in the Discovery Channel version? Did he take it to the grave taped to his thigh with a retrieved strip of MOGUL TAPE? Did he die a true cowboy's death with his boots on? Could the I-Beam in question be six feet under, in a rancher's boot? Would an exhumation bring an end to the mystery surrounding Roswell? Probably not! The more answers we have, the more questions there are. Not only that, the profit margins of too many people would find themselves in a state of $dollar$ abduction..."
Miller Johnson has kindly sent us a replica of the dreaded I-Beam. -Editor.
"Re Bob Durant's insistence that the Roswell wreckage is of ET origin: Would Mr. Durant kindly tell us what that wreckage would represent? Not, surely, the structure of a space-voyaging UFO? Or is it simply trash left over from the alien equivalent of an afternoon picnic? It certainly seems insufficient, both in quantity and quality, to be the stuff in which star travelers would care to risk their lives!"
"Re Dr. Gary Posner's unauthorized revelation about my (alleged) involvement in the MJ-12 documents (and other hoaxes), I have today sent a copy of 'Saucer Smear' with Posner's letter to a 'certain agency' in Washington, suggesting that it promptly revoke his 'TOP SECRET/Cosmic Watergate' clearance. Further, I have also sent a copy to the White House, asking for their definition of 'Kenneth Arnold' and 'J. Allen Hynek', before I decide whether to plead guilty to Posner's allegations."
'I see that the dreaded and evil 'X' has appeared next to my name, so enclosed is my annual Love Offering (purely voluntary, of course.) Rest assured that while the advent of the Internet may be slowly killing the art of letter writing, there will always be a place in this world for the brilliantly insightful wit of the Supreme Commander..."P.S: If I suck up some more, do I get a discount?"
"Many thanks for your recent letter ... In spite of our (minor) differences, I always maintained a great respect for you because of your stance for the truth...."
ASKING FOR IT: On 21 August, Josh Rempel was struck by lightning while standing beside a tree in a park. It left a hole in his baseball cap and singed his hair; he spent the afternoon in hospital while his heart was monitored. The day before, the 16-year-old from Calgary in Canada discussed religion with his mother, ending the conversation by saying: "May God strike me down with lightning" to express his atheism. "I believe in a higheR being now," he said afterwards. "I was spared." Victoria(BC) Times-Colonist, 22 Aug 1998.
Saucer Smear Index
Saucer Smear Mailbox
Please note that letters for Smear editor James Moseley should be snail-mailed to PO Box 1709, Key West, FL 33041, insofar as Cdr. Moseley is proudly computer-illiterate and determined to stay that way.Own a genuine artifact of ufological history!
Line your birdcage for pennies a sheet!
Back issues available for the last 43 years!
HTML version by S L M
