OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE SAUCER & UNEXPLAINED CELESTIAL EVENTS RESEARCH SOCIETY
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EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
NON-SCHEDULED
MAILING ADDRESS: |
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"One reason we still think of Moseley and discuss him owes to the simple fact that his involvement (in ufology) stretches back almost to the beginning of the UFO era. Very few from that halcyon age are still around, much less active. At his best, Moseley has been a colorful personality and an entertaining writer, and I suspect that is how history will remember him, no more, no less. Any larger - or, for that matter, smaller - claims for him require, I think, a leap of faith or a taste for hyperbole."
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EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
NON-SCHEDULED
MAILING ADDRESS: |
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...Then there is also Pat Marcatillio's twice-annual "Earth Mysteries & UFO/ET Congress", scheduled for October 7th and 8th at the Best Western Bordentown (N.J.) Inn. This is right across the highway from the seedy Days Inn where Pat has held similar events for many years. (We hope this notice reaches you in time!) The new location has a much smaller lecture hall, but this probably won't be a problem!
We see from the program that Pat has snagged Dr. Bruce Maccabee, the famous ufological physicist who has not been seen at a UFO convention in quite awhile. Also of note is someone who calls himself "Dr. Internet". (Can that really be his name??) Says the program: "The Doctor of the Internet has spent the last seven years reaping the best and secret news off the internet." We envy him!...
And then there is the NUFOC (National UFO Conference), about which we will have more to say further along in this issue...
SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is all too easily confused with Dr. Greer's group called CSETI (Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence), which is the parent organization for Greer's "Disclosure Project". A spokeman for SETI has denied Greer s claim, and called the good doctor the bane of SETI s existence.
Dr. Greer has another complaint: Ufologist Michael Salla and others have been putting out negative opinions about the aliens, filling us with "fear, hatred, and prejudice." According to Greet, Salla has accused "a certain tall, white ET race of causing the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004". This is the first we have heard of this particular alien race, so we know nothing about their supposed connection to this terrible disaster!
Greer takes a much more kindly and tolerent attitude toward the ETs than does Salla. This is surely for the best, because if They are really out to do us harm, there's not much we can do about it!
The above info is a summary from various web sites, and comes to you thanks to our esteemed Contributing Editor...
We are dismayed that Dr. Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1931 (?), is rarely mentioned in current write-ups about this astronomical controversy. It seems that he is all but forgotten, along with his (former) planet.
Few remember that in August of 1959, Tombaugh and his wife had one of the most impressive UFO sightings of all times, at their home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The sighting itself was not all that detailed, but coming from an astronomer of his importance, it is something that should be chiseled in stone in the annals of ufology.
We interviewed Tombaugh in 1953, and his statement is paraphrased in "Shockingly Close to the Truth!", Page 571 "Suddenly, at the zenith (of the sky), Tombaugh saw about ten faint, rectangular, symmetrically arranged yellowish-green lights, which he thought were on a single object. This strange phenomenon moved very fast to the south-southeast, disappearing from view in about three seconds at thirty-five or forty degrees above the horizon. The lights dimmed out gradually before disappearing. His wife also saw the object and said she detected a very faint glow coming from the thing as a whole. Tombaugh didn't see this, but was sure it was a single object because the lights maintained exactly fixed positions in relation to each other."
Tombaugh definitely believed that what he and his wife saw that night was a solid object, and he was (quite rightly) unwilling to speculate as to its origin. Tombaugh also had sightings of other unexplained objects including the "green fireballs" that were quite frequently observed in the southwestern U.S. in that era, and which are now generally considered to have been man-made.
Let's not forget Pluto and the great scientist who discovered it!...
"Saucer Smear" is in its 53rd year, but of course we are not on the newsstands and are not likely to ever make a profit. It's tough to make a living from ufology, no matter how wild you get. You can please some of the fans some of the time, but you will never please all of the fans any of the time- or whatever. But the Eckers do seem to be having fun in their own strange way, and so are we!...
We do respect at least one of UFO Magazine's regular columnists, Ceorge Earley, who now calls himself "The Opinionated Oregonian". On the one hand we wonder how he can stand the company he is keeping, but on the other hand we admire him for having the courage of his relatively conservative ufological convictions. Apparently the editors admire him for this also. We have known Ceorge for lo these many years, ever since he was a starry-eyed young investigator for the long-defunct NICAP organization...
Rutkowski admits that there is "no incontrovertible evidence" for alien spacecraft, but he does believe that something real is going on.
Of the many cases cited, the very best is one we have heard about but never studied. Stefan Michalak, an amateur prospector, claimed that he was severely burned by the exhaust of a disc-shaped craft he saw land in a bush near Falcon Lake, Manitoba, in 1967. The vehicle Blasted him with scalding air and quickly ascended when he yelled at it. His burns were severe, but as with the better-known Cash-Landrum case, nothing was ever proven.
Michalak went to his grave believing the object was a secret American military vehicle, which it may well have been.
Also included is the famous Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia case, also from 1967. Many witnesses saw a bright object crash into the ocean. Later a patch of luminous foam was found on the surface of the water. Local researchers have gathered new bits of information for years, but this case has never been solved.
Also, from 1974, there's a Saskatchewan farmer who came upon several bowl-shaped objects spinning rapidly in a hayfield, leaving behind circular impressions that pre-date England's famous crop circle craze!
Quite seriously, this sounds like a sober, scientific study, and we would really like to see the book. Ruthowski has a very good reputation...
Non-subscriber Steve Dunn has just sent us a brief July 2006 web story about your editor's 1953 interview with Georgia farmer Ralph Horton. The previous year, a UFO of sorts fell on his farm, and was later explained as a simple device used by the Air Force to determine wind velocity and direction. It was sent up attached to a weather balloon and tracked by radar. The object was "a box-like contraption made of wood sticks and tin or aluminum foil."
Your editor shot this picture of Horton with the UFO,
which we took with us (with his permission) and later either
lost or discarded. Writes Karl Pflock in "Shockingly": "If
Moseley had held onto it, it might have been he rather than
Pflock who cracked the infamous Roswell saucer-crash case,
which involved a bunch of such gadgets, adorned with weirdly
marked tape."
Of course, as we have stated previously, no one, including Pflock and Moseley, attached any great importance to the "Roswell Incident" until about 1978, when a book by that name came out, co-authored by William Moore and Charles Berlitz. Thereafter began the Roswell hysteria which continues to this day...
Beckjord was calling regarding a web site called "ufowatchdog.com", which we discussed on Page 3 of our last issue. It is written by an apparently moderate (though very outspoken) ufologist named Royce Myers, who had posted a fascinating "UFO Hall of Shame" Sure enough, old Beckjord was on the list, together with others including Sean David Morton, who has unsuccessfully tried to sue Myers. Now Beckjord has threatened, via e-mail, to sue Myers' internet service provider, and shockingly, he has succeeded in shutting down the web site at least temporarily!
Beckjord says that he objected to being called such things as "lunatic", "moron", and "asshole". We don't remember having seen those words in Myers' description of Beckjord, but on the other hand, it would not surprise us at all if someone (not us!) were to describe him in those terms.
Beckjord also admits that he has upset the families of 9/11 victims by suggesting that air travellers can avoid hijacking by suicide bombers by filling an aerosol container with pork bits and threatening the supposedly Arab hijackers with it. This commercial product, which Beckjord claims to be distributing, comes with a money-back guarantee. If it fails to prevent this terrorism, one's heirs can demand a refund!
Beckjord apparently sees this as humorous. It is no wonder that he is perhaps the most unpopular figure in the whole off-beat field!
Erik is old and ill, but he is also still peddling his version of 4-D saucers, 4-D Bigfoot, etc. However, in all these years, he has (to the best of our knowledge) never come out with a single serious article, book, or lecture. We sincerely feel sorry for him!
The web address for the internet version is: http://www.ufowatchdog.com/latinamerica.html.
Since this is related to ufowatchdog.com, it has apparently been knocked back
into the ether for now, by the wrath of an angry Beckjord. Hopefully it will soon return
with a different internet provider, and we will then get more recent info on this continuing
weirdness in South America. Or you can write to "UFO Newsclipping Service", #2 Caney
Valley Drive, Plumerville, Arkansas 72127...
"ufowatchdog.com" is back on line as of 9/6/06, with little mention of any
troubles. Updated South American strangeness is also back. Wheee!
Anyhow, Lisa informed us that the NUFOC will be held at the Bahia Resort Hotel in San Diego, Ca. on December lst-3rd of this year. Abduction gurus Dr. David Jacobs and Budd Hopkins will be among the speakers. Lisa promised to quickly supply us with further information, but as of this writing (9/24/06) she has not done so.
It's a bit late to advertise a convention for early December, but we'll see what happens. Your "Smear" editor expects to be there!...
Obviously, the Australians were not trying to steal our conference title. No doubt they were just blissfully unaware of it...
Of all the madness associated with the Museum thru the years, our favorite is the item below, revisited by Fortean Times (FT) founder Bob Rickard in the September 2006 (#214) issue of that wonderful British zine. Rather than re-write his story, we present it here verbatim...
I was rather proud of how FT helped pull the plug on Bob Guccione's claim, in the September 1996 issue of Penthouse, to have pictures of a genuine dead alian. Guccione wrote that the pictures were the property of a woman who claimed to be the daughter of a German scientist who had escaped to the US during World War II, and who was involved in "secret government research" into the Philadelphia Experiment and the Roswell crash of 1947. According to a UPI report, Guccione may have paid as much as $200,000 for the pictures. Oh dear! In fact, anyone who read FT back in December 1995 would have recognised the pictures as of the model aliens made for Panl David's1994 movie Roswell, and which were on permanent display in Roswell's international UFO Museum< In that earlier issue - FT84:322 - we disclosed how the same pictures, obviously taken by a tourist who had visited the International UFO Museum, were circulating in Hong Kong at that time with similar claims. Guccione could have done much, much better by gifting the CFI with the $200k! FT93:18
We really hope this book sees the light of day eventually, because the weird airship scare of 1897 has always intrigued us greatly. Something was going on, but we doubt if it involved aliens!
The couple claim they didn't really expect these objects to be taken seriously, but who knows? Anyhow, when they learned that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) had gotten involved, they cheerfully decided to confess...
Steve Barnett has sent us an intriguing photo showing a dead mystery animal, found in rural Androscoggin County, Maine. It's not Bigfoot or anything like that. He (or she?) looks kind of like a big dog with large teeth. We have few details, other than the fact that residents of the area have, for 15 years, reported seeing and hearing a very strange animal with chilling, monstrous cries and eyes that glow in the dark. (Don't most animals have eyes that glow in the dark??) Of course, there is no way of knowing this carcass is the same animal. We wish we had reports from "experts", etc., but we don't...
Now the wreckage of the plane has almost certainly been located at the bottom of Lake Superior (see photo left), and a smaller, unknown metallic object is lying about 200 feet away! This is presumably the object that hit the F-89. However, the original report states that the UFO kept going on its original course and speed after merging with the F-89 on the radar screen. So it seems to us that there is an important contradiction here!
There are other baffling questions raised from viewing the wreckage as seen and photographed on sonar. It is very hard to understand just how the crash took place. Worse, the salvage outfit that made this discovery is also looking for a nearby sunken treasure ship, and they don't want to reveal the exact location in which they are working. So it will be quite awhile longer before this mystery is completely solved - if ever...
It seems that a UFO allegedly landed in the Russian city of Voronezh, 300 miles from Moscow. Local people "identified the landing site and found traces of aliens who made a short promenade about the park" (What park? - Editor.) The space creatures were 9 to 12 feet tall. They walked near the landed ball or disc amd then disappeared inside. The approximately three creatures were accompanied by a small robot, Tass said...
Probably the least believable UFO abduction story of all times is promoted in Vol. 14, #7 (undated) of Erich Aggen's "C-COM" magazine. The full story can be found in a new British book called "Asylum (emphasis added) - The Definitive UF$ and Alien Abduction Experience". The book is written by Anthony Mallin, based on the experiences of Clive Powers, who as a victim of a mass abduction in Lincolnshire, England, in 1965. Powers was sent to an asylum in Croydon, where "his memory was agonizingly unraveled by a mysterious psychiatrist" - whatever that means!...
"I liked your tidbit on George Adamski. As soon as the IAU made their decision on the solar system I thought of Adamski. Yes he did tell us, in one of his books, that there were 12 planets, but when I wrote and asked him where they were located he replied that he was not free to give out such information at the time. In other words his space friends had decreed it was classified stuff."But wait a minute! Adamski never told us that Pluto was not really a planet (as the IAU have now decided), so presumably this also was an interplanetary secret that he took to his grave.
"12 planets, eh? And Pluto not one of them'. I can see already that most of our astrologers are furious and demanding Pluto's return. It will Cast grave doubts on all those horoscopes they did, won't it? They will need rewriting now...
"'Cedric Allingham' is still alive and kicking, though he has, alas, aged quite a bit. He too forgot to tell us about Pluto.
"And, how is R.E. Straith these days? I hope he is not too shocked by the new planets!"
"I noticed your comment in 'Saucer Smear' about the proposal to change the number of planets from nine to twelve. I have been following the debate for some time. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) finally decided that there were eight planets, with Pluto not included..."I wasn't happy to see Pluto go, but as an ex-astronomy major, I think it makes more sense for Pluto, 'Xena', and the others to be considered Kuiper Belt objects, rather than being planets amid the Kuiper Belt.
"Keep watching the sky!"
Now we're confused! We thought the decision was to recognize twelve planets. Does this mean George Adamski was wrong after all? - Editor.
"Dear Commander Moseleys"I shall certainly always have comments for 'Smear', but they are specifically reserved for your Venerable Self and your wonderful, stimulating, sardonic courage and dedication to documenting the always interesting sociological underbelly of Ufology."
"...I like Mac Tonnies' idea (quoted in the latest 'Smear') of a Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis, which is very similar to your long-held position as well as John Keel's idea of a 'haunted planet' and many indigenous belief systems around the world which see a nature filled with mysterious creatures slipping in from adjacent realities. The ancient Greek idea of 'chthonic' beings resembles this too, and it is also a notion congenial to hollow earth enthusiasts like Shaver."However, I resist the idea that there is an intelligence that tailors its physical manifestation in order to fit in with our preconceptions or our fears. That position - Jon Erik Beckjord is one adherent of this, as are many cryptozoologists of a more mystical stripe - seems designed to foreclose the idea that sometimes individuals and cultures generate ideas that result in false sightings or delusions ('if I hadn't believed it, I never would have seen it'). And I'm pretty sure that human culture is chock full of delusions. The trick is sorting out the wheat from the chaff - not just saying it's all chaff or all wheat.
"I wonder at the term 'cryptoterrestrLal', though. Isn't that mixing Latin and Creek roots? Perhaps 'cryptochthonic'??, though that doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. I'll have to think on that one..."
"In the July 30th 'Smear' you offered Cash-Landrum as 'the best of all' cases in terms of its confirmatory evidence, and in your next issue you seemed perplexed as to why John Schuessler of MUFON has never released Betty Cash's medical records, which you suspect may contain the 'proof that she really was physically harmed by the UFO encounter'.
"I can't help but suspect that the records would reveal just the opposite. During my research into this case 23 years ago, in addition to having corresponded at length with Dr. Peter Rank (the endorsing radiologist), I did the same with the late Dr. Richard Neal, who was also in possession of Betty Cash's medical records (via Schuessler). Though Neil was always promising to share those records with me 'in the near future', he never followed through.
"As I pointed out in my April 1983 'MUFON UFO Journal' letter, the victims' alleged medical effects were inconsistent with having been bathed in ionizing radiation. For instance, Dr. Rank had noted in the December 1982 issue that 'there were no well-documented changes in the blood'. If so, the victims must have been exposed to less than 50 rem of ionizing radiation, not the 200-300 rem that Paul Stowe had suggested in the same issue, and not a sufficient amount to account for the reported diarrhea, vomiting, hair loss, and non-healing skin ulcer. To be more specific than I was in that letter, the hair loss also began too soon after exposure, and since we know the dose of radiation was a single occurrence of non-lethal proportions, it makes no sense that the diarrhea persisted for more than a few days, and that a skin burn persisted as a chronic ulceration.
"And as I told MUFON's Robert Wanderer in response to his query about other possible causes of the reported 'damage', Vickie Landrum's 'red, puffy eyes' were apparently so minor as to be treated by an 'optometrist' (per the May 1982 issue of 'Fate') as opposed to a medical eye doctor, and a photo of Betty Cash's 'burns' shown on TV's 'That's Incredible' (April 1st, 1982) revealed nothing that couldn't have been accomplished with a sunlamp."
Betty Cash, now deceased, sued the government re her injuries, and lost. Many believed that a U.S. secret craft was involved, because about 23 helicopters were seen in connection with the incident, which Posner nevertheless believes never took plmce. See the ad above for John Schuessler's book about this fascinating case. - Editor.
"Please be advised that on Page 5 of the July 30th, 2006 'Smear', Lisa Davis is named as having held the NUFOC annual conferences in the Los Angeles area for the past 3 years. This is an inaccurate statement that should be corrected in your next issue."Jim, you asked me to chair the 2003 NUFOC conference, and I accepted. I spent several months arranging this conference in the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood, California, with the help of a splendid board of local UFO researchers. And Dr. John Miller and I donated considerable financial means which were necessary for the expenses incurred.
"Lisa Davis and John Miller shared the chairmanship of the 2004 NUFOC conference, held in the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, with John Miller again sharing the considerable expenses incurred. Then in 2005 you offered Lisa the permanent position as executive director of the annual NUFOC conferences, replacing yourself, and she graciously accepted. Then she chaired the 2005 conference, again in Hollywood.
"I would appreciate your correcting this misinformation, in your next 'Saucer Smear'. I wish my good friend Lisa Davis all best wishes and blessings in her continuing role as executive director."
We stand corrected, and look forward to Ms Davis' 2006 NUFOC, hopefully at the Bahia Resort Hotel in San Diego, Ca., December lst-3rd. See "News Briefies" for more details.- Ed.
"Karl Pflock, a long time researcher into UFOs and other related phenomena died June 5th from complications of ALS. He was 63..."Karl came to a different conclusion about the Roswell crash than I did. Eventually, he was convinced that a balloon array launched in conjunction with the then top-secret Project Mogul was the best explanation. He found some of the eyewitness statements to be weak and without sufficient corroboration. He thought that the explanation offered by Prof. Charles Moore, one of the members of Project Mogul, to be persuasive. I did not...
"It turned out that we agreed on far more about the UFO field than we disagreed. Me talked about Barney Barnett and how we found his tale of seeing the crashed Roswell saucer to be less than credible. We eventually wrote an article about it together, wondering what the UFO community would make of the collaboration. Karl, it turned out, had to do most of the final work because I found myself called to active duty in Iraq....
"I believe Karl was a good researcher and he aspired to be a good writer, as many of us do. Once I got away from the shadow of Don Schmitt, my relationship with Karl became much more cordial. (I found that to be true with a number of other researchers with the exception of Tom Carey)...
"Just another note here: Karl had worked for the CIA but I never really knew what he had done for them. I suspect it wasn't real exciting, in a covert way, but something necessary...Those inside the UFO community like to suggest he was a 'spook', but then, they like to say that about nearly everyone. Of course, his connection to the CIA didn't help.
"..I always enjoyed my exchanges with Karl, learned things during them, and kept in touch with him during my service in Iraq. I'm sorry that he was taken from us at this point because I think he could have added something to our research. He was much too young to be gone already."
"I just looked at 'Saucer Smear' on the Web, and saw your tribute to Karl Pflock. I was very moved."I've been reading Karl's book on Roswell, in preparation fora visit to the Sacred Precints this coming Sunday. What an extraordinary piece of investigative reporting! His tragic death is a loss to anyone with even the most casual interest in UFOs."
"...Too bad about your late contributing editor, dear old Karl (Pflock). He was a fun fellow and a good ufologist. He will be missed. Did he tell you about the Confidential UFO Project he had been working on for several years, sworn to secrecy, and that has now been left unfinished, possibly forever, upon his death?"Was there such a Project??? We sincerely doubt it! - Editor.
Saucer Smear Index
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 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. |
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