150 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
150 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
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INSIDE UFOLOGY
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July 1988
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CUFOS MEMBERS DO ABOUT-FACE ON GULF BREEZE
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ParaNet Alpha 07/03 -- "History tells us that [UFO] pictures that look
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fake...ARE fake." Those words, written by ufologist Jerome Clark, may come
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back to haunt him. Clark edits the International UFO Reporter, organ of
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the Center for UFO Studies, and is a longtime contributing editor to FATE
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Magazine. His words were part of an editorial for the March/April issue of
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the IUR, entitled "Ill Breeze," and referred to the series of photos taken
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by "Mr. Ed" in Gulf Breeze, FL, of an object that Clark said resembled
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"something that you use to cover a lightbulb with."
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Clark was echoing the view held by many CUFOS staffers that the Gulf
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Breeze photos just look too "hokey" to be real. Indeed, sentiments seem to
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be running along almost strictly organizational lines: Don Schmitt, Mark
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Rodeghier, Michael Swords, George Eberhardt, and Robert Boyd, CUFOS mem-
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bers all, have each expressed extreme doubts about the case and its inves-
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tigation, while most MUFON higher-ups, including Dennis Stacy and Walt
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Andrus, have maintained a "wait and see" posture -- at least, in the case
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of Andrus, when they weren't gushing about the case being the "most sig-
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nificant in history," etc. This schism gave the appearance of signifying a
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chill in the usually friendly relationship between the two groups, an
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appearance that Schmitt told ParaNet was illusory and unwarranted.
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Feud or not, a thaw is most definitely in the air. Shmitt told us
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that the problem seems to have been one of miscommunication. "There's a
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lot to this case we hadn't seen before," he said. And now, ParaNet has
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learned that Jerry Clark has changed his mind and is expressing "support"
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for the case.
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The turning point seems to be the presentation by Dr. Bruce Maccabee
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at the 1988 MUFON Symposium in Lincoln, at which he showed the results
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thus far of his photo analysis work. "We can only learn from this case,"
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said Maccabee. "If its a hoax, we will learn about a new kind of hoaxer,
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one who seeks no notoriety for himself, who is well-established in his
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community, who cooperates fully with investigators, even going so far as
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to build a special camera mount to our specifications, and who is so con-
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fident in his work that he uses a special, sealed 3-D camera provided by
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investigators. Obviously, if its real, we will learn a tremendous amount
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about the nature of the UFO phenomenon."
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Among other things, he had determined the object in at least one
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photo to be around 18 feet in diameter and 14 feet tall. Use of the
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special dual-camera mount referred to earlier had determined that the
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image is not a double exposure. And triangulation of the two images showed
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it to be not less than 150 feet from the photographer, out over the bay
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that separates Gulf Breeze from the mainland of Florida.
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One by one, Maccabee either refuted or clarified objections to the
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case raised by, among others, Robert Boyd of CUFOS...27 points in all.
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Even Phil Klass was impressed enough to compliment Maccabee, and seemed to
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be at a loss for major objections.
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In the meantime, Schmitt is not letting MUFON completely off the
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hook. He still objects to the comments of some of the principals in the
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case, most notably Andrus, Don Ware, and Budd Hopkins. He maintains they
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were "hasty" and "unprofessional" in their early exposure of the details
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of the reports, and in some of their positive, seemingly over-credulous
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comments. And he wishes MUFON had shared some of the more positive details
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of the photo-analysis earlier, before either group had published in their
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respective journals.
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And Jerry Clark? Well, he's changed his mind before. His address at
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the symposium was on the return of the nuts-and-bolts theory of UFOs, and
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how the "paraphysical" and "psychic" explanations were just cop-outs. This
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from a man who had co-written a previous tome, with Loren Coleman, on the
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psychic aspects of the UFO phenomenon.
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[For the record, the ParaNet rating of the Gulf Breeze case stands
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at S5/P5, Highly Strange, Data Unreliable/Probable Hoax; however, whereas
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it previously bordered on P1, it is now very close to becoming a P3. Fur-
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ther photoanalysis results, if in any way conclusive, will have a great in-
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fluence on the rating.]
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-----------------------
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AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY....
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Back in June of 1978, a retired Air Force Colonel appeared on TV's
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Merv Griffin show to discuss his UFO sighting of 1954, when he was a B-52
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pilot. "We were cruising at 10,000 feet when we spotted a target somewhere
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around 20,000 to 25,000 feet. It was about seven miles in front of us to
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our right, and we were overtaking it. It then started descending across
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our flight path, and I decided to check it out. So I advanced power and
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began closing a little faster and descending. We kept getting closer and
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closer and pretty soon we were within a mile of the object, flying over
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trees at 345 MPH."
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The plane closed to within an eighth of a mile of the disc-shaped
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object. "It was about 60 feet in diameter and 10 or 11 feet thick through
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the center," he said. "It had what looked like a titanium-type finish
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(silver gray). I pulled up and made a hard turn that put it out of sight
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for roughly four seconds. We whipped back to pull up alongside of it and
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it wasn't there. I zoomed up to 1500 feet. `There it is!' I said. It was
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about 2 miles in front of us going across a field leaving a dusty trail
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behind it. I guessed its speed at about 170 MPH." After another dive, the
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crew lost sight of the object. "We never saw it again," said Air Force
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Colonel William Coleman, former Public Information Officer for Project
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Blue Book, who until that broadcast, had emphatically denied that he had
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ever had such an experience. [Source: MUFON Journal, June 1988]
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----------------------
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MJ-12's DAY IN COURT?
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The war of words between MJ-12 proponent William Moore and debunker
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Phil Klass is heating up. After releasing a venomous attack on Klass' ob-
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jections to MJ-12 through his publication, Fair Witness Focus, Moore pub-
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lished a similar monograph in the proceedings of the 1988 MUFON Symposium.
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Since Moore failed to show for the event, the paper was never delivered,
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but Klass responded to the charges of "straight-out lying" and other ob-
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fuscations by implying that he would be contacting attorneys about pos-
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sible libel charges.
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Moore, in the meantime, has sent an open letter to Klass in which he
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outlines 19 incidents in which he feels Klass has strained the boundaries
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of objective investigation, through the use of "vicious, vituperative at-
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tacks," "insinuation," and "innuendo." Moore's major objection is Klass'
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alleged implication that he, Moore, may be a willing accomplice to the
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forgery of government documents in the MJ-12 affair. For example, in the
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December 15, 1987 issue of "Saucer Smear," Klass is quoted as saying in a
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letter, "In my opinion, Moore's behavior in the past six months is NOT
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that of an innocent victim of somebody else's hoax." (Emphasis in origi-
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nal).
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Moore ends the letter by demanding of Klass "written acknowledgement
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that you do not now and never have possessed proof positive that the...MJ-
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12 documents...are fraudulent." Further, he wants Klass to acknowledge
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that his public statements were not intended to imply that Moore or any of
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his associates were involved in a hoax; and predictably, Moore wants a
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written apology. The possibility of legal action is also dangled in
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Moore's closing.
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Now, would anyone care to speculate on the outcome of a jury trial
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in which the MJ-12 documents were the central evidence?
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-------------------
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AND FINALLY...
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ParaNet has learned that a major TV project on UFOs is in the works,
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one that is, naturally, hoped to "blow the lid off the whole thing." We
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can't be more specific at this time, except to say that parts of it might
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actually be done live. (No, Geraldo Rivera is NOT involved).
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--Jim Speiser
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Press ENTER to Continue:
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