49 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
49 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
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AUTHOR IN BIRDSLL1.UFO RESPONDS
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ParaNet Alpha 06/29 -- Phil Imbrogno, author of NIGHT SIEGE: THE HUDSON
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VALLEY UFO, has responded to charges levelled in the ParaNet file
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BIRDSLL1.UFO. The file, submitted to ParaNet by its author, a former NSA
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employee named Jerry Birdsall, consisted of a statement in which Birdsall
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levelled charges tantamount to libel at Imbrogno. While he didn't name
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Imbrogno or the book in his ParaNet release, Birdsall, referred to in
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NIGHT SIEGE as "James Madison," told us in a face to face encounter that
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Imbrogno had misinterpreted his actions, misquoted him, and otherwise dis-
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torted the truth in his accounts of their interactions.
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In a conversation today, Imbrogno was at first reticent to admit that
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Birdsall was the James Madison referred to, for obvious reasons. When
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assured of our purposes, Imbrogno freely discussed his dealings with the
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former NSA SIGnals INTelligence specialist. He said that Birdsall first
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came to the UFO researcher due to his interest in the Hudson Valley
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sightings, which were in full swing at the time. According to Imbrogno,
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Birdsall told him of his NSA employment "in a way that sounded like it was
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designed to impress me somehow," but told him that his interest was to
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obtain funding for Imbrogno's investigation from the Fund for UFO Re-
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search, of which Birdsall claimed to be a member. "He said he was a good
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friend of [FUFOR Chairman] Bruce Maccabee, and that he could use his in-
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fluence to get me funded." But it turned out that Maccabee and other Fund
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members "barely knew" Birdsall, says Imbrogno, and FUFOR turned him down
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for funding.
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While not specifically referred to in the file, a central point seems to
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be a quote in NIGHT SIEGE, attributed to "James Madison": "The government
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has been known to dispose of people for less" (referring to UFO research
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that might compromise government secrets). Imbrogno said he found it "ra-
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ther strange," but admitted that it could just as easily be interpreted as
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a statement, rather than as a threat. "It was just strange coming from
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this guy who had made a big deal about his ties with the NSA."
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Imbrogno said that at no time in the book did he insist that "Madison"
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(Birdsall) was an agent assigned to monitor or sabotage his UFO research.
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He said he was merely suspicious of his activities, and thought them wor-
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thy of note in his book. He admitted that the book's editor may have
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"spiced up" one or two passages for dramatic value, but that the book was
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"90% accurate" in its portrayal of Birdsall.
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"If I was going to invent incidents involving a government agent just to
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sell more books, do you think I'd design them around a real person who
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could come back and refute what I'd said?" asked Imbrogno. "Hell, no, I'd
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make the guy up out of thin air. Who could argue with me then?"
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--Jim Speiser
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