("Saucer Smear" is an) "eminently scholarly publication..."

- WILLIAM BIRNES, publisher of "UFO Magazine", writing in his "From the Publisher" column for their February-March 2005 issue.

We welcome your correspondence, pro or con, well-reasoned or otherwise, but please keep in mind that while Saucer Smear is on the Dreaded Internet, your humble editor is NOT! So, if you wish to receive a personal reply to your letter, or wish to have any chance of seeing it printed on Our Glorious Pages, please print it out, put it in an envelope, affix a stamp thereto, and SNAIL mail it to: James W. Moseley P.O. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041 It's simple and loads of fun! Ask your grandma if you don't remember how to do it! We thank you!

• NEWS BRIEFIES
• Pflock Ptalk - TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE U.F.O.
• LETTRES TO YE OLDE EDITOR

• In the February-March 2005 issue of (ugh!) "UFO Magazine", publisher William Birnes calls "Saucer Smear" an "eminently scholarly publication", at the top of his column. Then, the Letters section starts out with a very unfavorable comment we wrote them awhile back about (ugh!) Don Ecker, their Director of "Research". Still further along, Ecker apparently admits that the notorious "Alien Autopsy" film of yesteryear was a fake, after all. Could it be that "UFO Magazine" is actually seeking the Truth? We doubt it, but in this weird world of ours, almost anything is possible!...

• Speaking of Sex and Saucers (as we often are!), we have a Gem from Chris Roth concerning the latest activities of the Raelians. You may recall that they believe the human race was created by aliens about 22,000 years ago, and that several recently-cloned babies now live in various secret locations on Earth. Of course the first statement can't be verified, and there is also much speculation that the clonings were nothing more than a well-orchestrated publicity stunt.

  The Raelians, who also believe in free love, have started holding annual "Femininity Day" celebrations, the latest of which took place this past March 6th on Miami Beach - far from the cult's frigid headquarters in Quebec, Canada. About 15 female members of the group paraded nude or nearly nude (we're not sure which), as a cheerful expression of the joy of living. The only trouble is, we did not see a word in the Miami newspaper about this, and if Chris had not sent us this one item, we would not have heard about the event at all. Perhaps their publicity efforts have worn thin.

  Rael, who is head of the movement, is a French-born prophet and former race car driver who says he met an alien in a volcano in 1973 and visited its home planet shortly thereafter. He has of course had other such adventures since then. His movement is supposed to be both atheistic and scientific, though we surely have our doubts about the latter....

• Here's a really strange item from the Net, dated March 30th. In the town of Aracruz, Brazel, a burnt rubber doll was mistaken for a badly injured alien and taken to a hospital. This happened after local people found a burnt "body" on the ground after seeing a fireball fall from the sky. A police spokesman stated: "Many people were terrified, thinking that an alien invasion was taking place. They thought the doll was a burnt ET, and more than fifty residents called the station." A spokesman for the hospital said: "It was obviously a practical joke, but we wonder who would do this in such a small and quiet town." (Our thanks to Dean Zevchek for this one.) ...

• As we have belatedly learned, the back cover of the April 2005 issue of Fate Magazine contains an advertisement for a Special UFO Issue of the magazine (for $9.95), which is not included in the ordinary subscription. Silly us, we gave away that issue before seeing the ad, and now we learn that the Special Issue is mysteriously out of print already!

  What intrigues us is that one of the twelve articles there contains a list of over one hundred "Top Ufologists", and Fate editor Phyllis Galde tells us that we made the List! We can't wait to see it! Who are the others, and what is the overlap, if any, between this compilation and "Smear's" "Hall of Shame" List which we have discussed a lot recently? Is there perhaps even an overlap with Time Magazine's recent list of the 100 most influential people in the world? Probably not, but as soon as we get our hands on this Special Issue, we will discuss it in some detail for the benefit of our breathless readers! Fate Magazine can be reached at: P.O. Box 460, Lakeville, Minnesota 55044..,

• The prestigious Fund for UFO Research (Box 277, Mt. Rainier, Md. 20712) has fallen on hard times, and has sent out a plea for money which reads in part:

  "The dearth of serious interest in UFOs on the part of the public, the press and the scientific community deepens, as does the financial bind in which the Fund finds itself. The long-term, near-total absence of the subject in the major news media cannot help give the impression that either UFOs are no longer being seen, or that the mystery of their nature has been solved. Neither conclusion is even close to correct... The stack of genuinely baffling, unexplained cases continues to grow...

  "The sources of major funding have faded away, and so individuals will have to carry a larger part of the load. Barring an unexpected influx of funds, we will soon be on the brink of bankruptcy..."

  This organization has done good work, and your "Smear" editor was moved to send in a (very) small donation himself. Those of you so moved can write to the address as the beginning of this article...

• Another sad situation is that of long-time researcher Antonio Huneeus, originally from Chile in South America, but for thirty years he was a key saucerer living in New York City. Antonio, who is a good friend of ours, has had difficulty making an adequate living here, writing about ufology and related topics. He is a veteran Fate Magazine columnist, a lecturer, and author of countless articles, but fame & fortune have eluded him. This is at least partly because of his admirable integrity, which has prevented him from writing ufological trash - as countless others have done.

  By the time you read this, Antonio will have moved out of his Brooklyn, N.Y. apartment, and will be on his way back to Equador and eventually Chile, where he was born. His departure is a real loss to serious ufology in the U.S., and we will certainly miss him - though hopefully we will still be able to keep in touch...

• In the Spring 2005 issue of his quarterly zine "Flying Saucer Digest", Rick Hilberg clears up a burning question that apparently has been bothering some of you. The question is - In the famous 1961 Betty & Barney Hill UFO abduction case, did the aliens take semen samples from Barney or did they not? Apparently the correct answer is - yes, they did.

  What the implications of this may be, we do not know, nor did we know we would ever read sexually explicit material in such a staid journal. Way to go, Rick!

  For more info on "Flying Saucer Digest", write to Rick at 377 Race Street, Berea, Ohio 44017. Be sure to let him know if you want your issues sent to you in a plain brown envelope!...

• In Dennis Crenshaw's internet zine "Unraveling the Secrets", someone named John Mount makes some excellent comments about the famous Roswell-related photo of General Ramey and the supposedly tell-tale message seen in his hand. (We assume that Roswell fiends will understand what we are referring to here.) Says John Mounts:

  "...I can't help wondering if, even during the 1940s, the military would be stupid enough to send such sensitive material via telegram or radiogram...I do a little photography myself and I wonder - what are the lucky odds that the telegram
  (1) Was facing not at an angle but directly toward the camera?
  (2) Had the correct (written) side toward the camera?
  (3) Was not partially folded, obscured by a hand, fingers, or anything else?
  (4) Was at such a distance so as to be able to be enhanced enough to read, even with today's technology?
  (5) And, finally, held in such a manner (by, of all people, a general) for all the world to see?"

  As most of our readers know, several hard-core Roswell freaks have labored mightily, and in vain, to "decode" the message in this communication. It is, at least in some parts, simply too indistinct to see properly, no matter how much effort is made, and no matter what modern technology is used. Your editor has long had in mind the same kind of comments made above by John Mount, but Mount has expressed these ideas beautifully...

• We're a little short of material this time, so we've decided to use some Space to nitpick the glorious new issue of the MUFON UFO Journal, dated April 2005.

  First there's the cover, featuring a nightmarish painting of a night scene in which an egg-shaped light appears to be hovering near a rural house. Abductee/artist David Huggins could well have painted this, but didn't. The illustration pertains to one of several "alltime best" UFO cases from the state of California, as recounted by researcher Preston Dennett; but we are never told which case!

  Some items on Dennett's sighting list are much better than others, but the one that caught our attention is the classic 1953 story of the two miners who saw a saucer on the same date three months in a row. Naturally it failed to show up on the fourth month, when press & public were waiting. The name of the location is Brush Creek, California, but Dennett carelessly calls it Bluff Creek. Much worse, he states: "The case was investigated by several major researchers, including Gray Barker and Paul Spade, both of whom were actually jailed by the Brush Creek (this time he gets the name right!) Sheriff's station when they tried to conduct a stakeout for the saucer." We know as a fact that Gray Barker was not out there, so he was never jailed - at least not for this particular offence, and in fact he was never jailed in California for anything!

  We were pleased to read "An Update from Walt Andrus", the retired International Director of MUFON. A benign but somewhat gullible man (remember the Texas alien skeleton case a few years ago?), Walt has now sunk into a number of normal retirement hobbies, including dancing (shudder!) with someone named Ruth Howell, now that his wife has died. He says he subscribes to "Saucer Smear" for its "UFO humor and fringe information", and we appreciate this comment. But Walt misstates that MUFON is the oldest UFO organization on the "blue planet" (Earth?), as our own Saucer and Unexplained Celestial Events Research Society (S.A.U. C.E.R.S.) is many years older than MUFON - having been founded in 1954! - We do sincerely wish Walt well in his well-deserved retirement.

  Then there's the article by podiatrist (= foot doctor) Roger Leir, giving a summary of his frustrating efforts to prove that rather ordinary substances found under the skin of certain UFO abductees are truly anomalous objects. With unconscious humor Leir states: "There are those who sit in their comfortable chairs and hop on the Internet to criticize me..." Leir seems sincere, and all he needs is Money (lots of it!) to make his dreams come true.

  Also there are long articles by (ugh!) Budd Hopkins and "Nuclear Physicist - Lecturer" Stanton Friedman, whining vigorously about the recent ABC-TV Special, "UFOs: Seeing Is Believing", hosted by Peter Jennings. Their complaints are not as hysterical as those of Whitley Strieber, quoted in our last issue, but they fail to take into consideration the fact that television specials are written to entertain the Masses - not necessarily to cater to the narrow viewpoint of a relative handful of flying saucer devotees. In our humble opinion the show was reasonably objective, and as we have stated before, we were glad to see that the unpopular Mogul Balloon Theory re Roswell finally received the attention it deserves.

  To grossly misquote a famous quote: "You can please some of the people all the time; you can please all of the people some of the time; but you can't please some of the people any of the time!" Or whatever.

  Our thanks to Contributing Editor Karl Pflock (still out there kicking ufological ass!) for Guidance on some of the above...

  PRESS-TIME FLASH!
  Are saucers trying to land on the White House lawn? Probably not, but on April 26th, an "unidentified aircraft", seen briefly on radar, entered the restricted airspace above Washington, D.C. Bush & Cheney were whisked away to underground bunkers till it was determined that the incident was probably caused by a radar malfunction. This same scenario has occurred at least once before, in recent months...

• Finally, Ms. Lisa Davis, pictured here, is the new Executive Director of the National UFO Conference (NUFOC). The 43rd running of this annual event will take place on Labor Day weekend (Sept. 2nd-4th) at the beautiful Renaissance Hotel at 1755 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, California, - the same locale as last year. For details contact www.nufoc.org, or phone 858-523-1068, or write to NUFOC 2005; 3830 Valley Center Drive, #705-441; San Diego, CA 92130. Speakers will include include a special guest appearance by Jim Moseley - plus Nick Redfern, Richard Dolan, Jaime Maussan, Terry Hansen, Greg Bishop, Lynne Kitei, M.D., David Sereda, Creg Cameron & others.

For the past fifty-odd years one man has kept his nose to the grindstone (he only looks up when he has to chuckle and snicker) when it comes to presenting the odds and ends --- mostly odds --- having to do with the UFO mysteries. But James Moseley and his infamous publication "Saucer Smear" isn't your everyday UFO newsletter with page after page of people reporting lights in the sky or blacked-out "Official Secret Papers" of a government cover-up. No, Saucer Smear is to Ufology, or as James likes to call it --- "Ufoology" --- what Variety Magazine is to Hollywood Actors. It's main content is about those who would study, lecture and write on the subject. Which for those of us interested in the subject makes for some fun and entertaining reading. Sometimes those working the UFO field are more fun to read about than the stories they tell. This is James Moseley's area of study. Ufoology.

I have always felt honored when James has mentioned me in Saucer Smear over the years. But this time I was over-whelmed when I read the article he wrote regarding "Unraveling the Secrets" and this editor in his Feb. 2005 issue.

A warm, clear summer's eve, 1951 or 1952. A few miles south of San Jose, California, two fathers and their three young sons are returning home after a day's fishing, driving westward on a country road in the gathering dusk. Above the black bulk of the coastal mountains on the western horizon an eye-catching "something" hovers.

"Wow! That sure is a bright star," one of the boys says. A father replies, "It's probably the planet Venus." But then all in the car are startled to see the "planet" change color, from white to blue to red, then back to white - not the uncertain flickerings of atmospheric scintillation, but clear changes of color occurring as though someone were flipping a switch.

The driver brings the car to an abrupt halt. Everyone piles out, talking excitedly. As they stare intently at the strange object, it goes through the same cycle again, remaining each color for a second or two. Then it begins a remarkable dance. It jumps about five degrees to the left of its original position, with no apparent transit time. It's here, then suddenly it's over there! It goes through its color change again - white to blue to red and back to white. Then, instantaneously, it's back where it started. Another color cycle and another five-degree jump, this time to the right. Still another color cycle and -Flash!- back to home base. The same thing again, only this time the jump is downward, then back to the original position. Through the colors again, then a jump upward, another color cycle, and back to the starting point. Then again: blue, red, white.

For a few seconds, the object remains as it was when first seen. Then it rapidly grows brighter, flaring intensely. "It almost hurts to look at it!" one of the kids shouts. As if on cue, the weird thing rockets straight up, in an instant losing itself among the evening's emerging stars.

The witnesses stand in amazed, stunned silence. Then the boys begin a babble of excited speculation, while their fathers figuratively scratch their heads. Back in the car and on the road again, the adults begin to review the "sensible" possibilities, with the kids suggesting something more thrilling. Many explanations are considered: airplanes, fireworks, a military rocket, a balloon, insects, an odd weather phenomenon, etc. In the end, the boys' answer seems the most likely: a flying saucer!

I, then eight or nine years old, was one of those boys. My pop was one of those fathers. Without mentioning our experience, pop, a former reporter, asked a friend on the local newspaper if they had received any calls about something unusual in the night sky. He drew a blank. We heard nothing on the radio, read nothing in the papers. If anyone else saw what we saw, they weren't talking - but neither were we. Despite the urgings of we kids that they contact the Air Force, our fathers didn't file a report with anyone, keeping our experience a matter of family lore.

So what did we see?... That's for next time.

• Our olde friend STEVE BARNETT writes:

  "I was very saddened to hear of Karl Pflock's Lou Gehrig's disease. He seemed so active and engaged when we had lunch at Jemez Springs (N.M.) that it is difficult for me to think of him as anything else but that..."

• Parapsychologtst GEORGE HANSEN writes:

  "Regarding your note on page 8 of the March 25th issue of 'Smear', please do give details about the 'Hall of Shame' list! Historians and anthropologists in the future will undoubtedly be interested in the buffoonishness of ufology, and your information will be of considerable value.

  "Today's ufologists just don't want to admit that UFO and other paranormal phenomena induce irrationality. At least CSI-COP seems to understand that fact."

• Bigfooter ERIK BECKJORD comments on the remarks about him in our February 15th issue:

  "Dear Curmugeon-Master and Keeper of the Sleaze:

  "First I thank you for continuing my free subscription to the magazine I named for you in the mid 1970s, 'Saucer Smear', and next I would like to correct the usual false statements you printed re myself on page 5 of the last 'Smear':

  "I go to conventions of the Bigfoot type to piss off the boring losers I meet there who actually think Bigfoot is a solid flesh and blood animal. However, few were really upset over my alien mask at all, which I wore to one lecture only, and my then-arch-enemy Henry Franzoni discovered me and we went off to kill a pitcher of beer or two...

  "I am pleased to be in your Hall of Shame, which should have Jim M. in it, since in 'Saucer Smear' only the best people are listed in it. If you are NOT in the Hall of Shame, you did something wrong. Enclosed is a photo where my actual face is shown. One appearance with this man (David Letterman) is worth 30,000 conventions..."

  Erik has kindly sent us this much younger picture of himself together with a much younger David Letterman (not shown here) - Editor

• Researcher CAROL HONEY writes as follows in regard to our article about him on Page 4 of the last "Smear":

  "I just received your 'Saucer Smear' for March 25, 2005, and wish to thank you for sending it to me, although I am a Non-Non-Subscriber, as I read the copies on the (cursed) Internet.

  "My only comment, and I admit it is a very small one as far as importance goes, is that you attribute a lot of things about my supposed viewpoints - things I have never believed nor do I believe them now. Examples:

  • "I never published a newsletter for George Adamski. I did run short articles written by him, but they were published in my own newsletter. He never started his own newsletter until a few weeks after I separated from his group and implied that I could never have published a newsletter without his help.

  • "The only part of Adamski's earlier claims that I still back is the photograph of the dome-shaped craft he called a 'Scout Ship'. I do not endorse or approve as genuine the remaining photos of cigar-shaped craft, although the evidence backing them up is far greater than the evidence said to disprove them.

  • "Your special issue claiming to be an expose of Adamski's claims is so full of holes that it exposes nothing but a small portion of his original story that I have never endorsed...

  • "You say that C.A. Honey publishes a 'large number of tracts' in which 'he expounds' a certain philosophy in his Science Publications. I do publish a lot of articles (about 800,000 words total in 145 separate articles) which I send no-charge over the internet to people all over the world.

  • "When you called me about the Straith Letter you covered enough of the points I had questions about that I accepted your explanation. However, I noted that no one was ever prosecuted for the felony of misusing the machine that impressed the Seal of the United States into the stationery, even though the machine was kept in a locked safe inside the Secretary of State's office.

  • "If I was ever engaged in a feud with the George Adamski Foundation (CAF) it was short lived and over many months ago. My article was directed to the CAF back in October, 2001. Since I never distributed any of Adamskt's material even back in those years, I am a little confused over your statement that the controversy was over such material.

  "It may interest you to know that 'my view of the universe' is exactly what 'real science' visualizes. I am not aware that I ever 'argued about such matters' after so many years have passed. My only point is that 'real scientists' often express a lot of ignorance as to what is really going on in their field of inquiry. I held a secret clearance for over 25 years, and we often had information that differed from that which we could tell the public. In many cases it could not be revealed to others with a secret clearance because they would not 'have a need to know'..."

  There is some information about the Straith Letter that we still do not choose to reveal. - Carol Honey can be reached at: 2456 South Woodlark Drive, Ontario, California 91761-6530. - Editor.

• STANTON FRIEDMAN, Nuclear Physicist-Lecturer, Etc., Etc. writes as follows, not to us but to German UFO hoax-buster Klaus Webner, whose letter to the editor appeared in our last issue:

  "Dear Mr. Webner:

  "I have read with interest your comments in Jim Moseley's latest 'Saucer Smear'. To answer your question, no, nobody has called me a stupid charlatan. The reason is simple. I am neither stupid nor a charlatan. Funny question from somebody who admits faking movies and photos. I am sorry you are bothered by watching me on Satellite TV programs. That is why TV sets have an off switch. In case you are wondering, I don't get paid for being on those programs.

  "I wonder just what research, besides faking UFO photos and movies, you have done on the Betty and Barney Hill case, or Ed Walters, or MJ-12?? Do you make a proclamation every day on some such idiocy? Have you read many or any of my more than 80 UFO papers, or my two books, or watched the videos I have helped make? Have you been to the 20 archives I have been to? Have you read the articles on my website?...

  "Or are you just a blowhard with an ax to grind for some unknown reason? I have met with Betty and Barney Hill and Marjorie Fish and John Fuller and Ed Walters and talked to Dr. Benjamin Simon and reviewed Fuller's files at Boston University, and done a whole book and many papers on MJ-12, even showing that some are fraudulent. What has your contribution been besides making proclamations?"

• Researcher BRUNO MOION writes:

  "I recently unearthed a collection of back issues of 'Smear' graciously given to me by researcher and non-subscriber Paul Fisher. I like to take them out and read them, as they are quite entertaining.

  "One issue in particular mentions the Canadian scientist and ufologist Wilbert Smith, but unfortunately labels him a 'crackpot scientist'! I must take exception to this. There is an ugly rumor widespread in the research community that Smith died in 1962 of a 'brain tumor'. In actual fact he died of colon cancer. Obviously someone wanted to discredit Smith by raising the spectre that a brain tumor could be responsible for a lapse of logical judgment. The mystery here is how colon cancer can get transformed into 'brain tumor'.

  "In my many years of involvement with UFO research, I have encountered a number of individuals within the UFO community of whom I suspect must have their heads up their ass. Could this be the way in which Smith's colon cancer became rumored to be a 'brain tumor'?"

  We don't remember the "crackpot scientist" designation, but Wilbur Smith was known to be "Far Out". J. Allen Hynek did die of a brain tumor, but no one ever called him a "crackpot scientist". - Editor.

• Our olde friend ROB MACGREGOR writes as follows:

  "...Here's an update on James Randi. On Page 3 of your last issue you say that Randi would surely head 'Smear's' 'Hall of Shame' List were it not for the fact that he has never made a public statement about UFOs specifically, as far as we are aware.

  "Okay, here's Randi, speaking in the National Geographic Channel documentary called 'Crop Circles', which I watched this evening (April 9th). He said. 'If you were an alien and wanted to make a statement, wouldn't you go make a crop circle on the White House lawn?'

  "There you go. Randi is now on the record. Granted, it was more about crop circles than UFOs, but he was responding to the contention of some Believers that aliens are responsible."

• NORMAN HOWARD of Las Vegas writes:

  "...I was tickled to see that 'UFO Magazine' did have the integrity to publish your letter to them, despite your reference to Don Ecker as a 'shithead' - even though they used dashes in place of the letters H, I, and T. I loved it that you put Ecker in his place after what he said about you in a previous edition of 'UFO Magazine'. It is his loss that he doesn't speak to you!"

• Researcher(?) WENDY CONNORS writes as follows re our remarks about her in the Feb. 15th issue of "Smear"

  "First, let me assure you that we did not meet in Roswell in 2000. If we had, I would have run from the room to get my shotgun! Also, I am not as physically plump as in the past. Cancer is now slowly correcting that, so my physical attributes shouldn't offend you as much in the future.

  "You have done me a great honor by listing me with the likes of Jerome Clark and Richard Hall as the most hated people in Ufology. It is thrilling knowing for a fact that I must be doing something correctly to get you bent out of shape. I noticed your own name missing from the list, but I do understand the reason for the omission.

  "Sorry you didn't like my review of your book. It sure got you a lot more press and orders than you were getting before. Otherwise, why would you have promoted the review as hard as you did? You are, by the way, welcome; and I appreciated the inscription in the copy I purchased relaying your appreciation.

  "BTW, I demote you to the rank of E-3. Anyone who can't get beyond the pencil or themselves isn't ready for command."

  We really don't understand this last sentence! - Editor.

• ROB SWIATEK of FUFOR writes:

  "...I'm glad your irregular, nonscheduled publication staggered through another year and hope it forges on into the future with its dishabille of information and observation. One is forced to ponder its continued existence in a world of internet web sites that offer instantaneous feedback and the chance for endless debate at negligible expense. How does such a newsletter survive, even gain impetus, in such an environment? What induces its contributors to submit material? I suspect the answers lie in its historical significance, reader loyalty, a more direct sense of involvement than an e-letter entails, and the sheer entertaining nature of the thing. It might not solve the UFO mystery, but damn, it's an interesting read!..."

  Our thanks to Rob Swtatek for these kind remarks! - Editor.

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