114 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
114 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: E B E's FILE: UFO1035
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PART 16
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One leader who was not immediately alarmed was Walter H. Andrus,
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Jr., director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), one of the two
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largest UFO organizations in the United States (the other being
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the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies [CUFOS]). In 1987,
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before Lear had proposed what some wags would call the Dark Side
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Hypothesis, he had offered to host the 1989 MUFON conference in
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Las Vegas. Andrus agreed. But as Lear's true beliefs became
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known, leading figures within MUFON expressed concern about
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Lear's role in the conference. When Andrus failed to respond
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quickly, MUFON officials were infuriated.
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Facing a possible palace revolt, Andrus informed Lear that
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Cooper, whom Lear had invited to speak at the conference, was not
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an acceptable choice. But to the critics on the MUFON board and
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elsewhere in the organization, this was hardly enough. One of
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them, longtime ufologist Richard Hall, said this was "like
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putting a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage" (Hall, 1989). In a heated
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telephone exchange Andrus called Hall's objections to Lear "just
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one man's opinion" and claimed support, which turned out not to
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exist, from other MUFON notables. In a widely-distributed open
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letter to Andrus, Hall wrote, "Having Lear run the symposium and
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be a major speaker at it is comparable to NICAP in the 1960's
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having George Adamski run a NICAP conference! " (NICAP, the
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National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, of which
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Hall was executive secretary in the late 1950s and much of the
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1960s, was a conservative UFO-research organization which
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attacked as fraudulent the claims of Adamski, who wrote books
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about his meetings with Venusians and distributed photographs of
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what he said were their spaceships.) Hall went on, "You seem to
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be going for the colorful and the spectacular rather than for the
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critical-minded approach of science; you even expressed the view-
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in effect-that having a panel to question Lear critically would
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be good show biz and the 'highlight' of the symposium. Maybe so,
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but it obviously would dominate the entire program, grab off all
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major news media attention, and put UFO research in the worst
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possible light." Hall declared, "I am hereby resigning from the
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MUFON Board and I request that my name be removed from all MUFON
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publications or papers that indicate me to be a Board Member."
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Fearing more resignations, Andrus moved to make Lear barely more
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than a guest at his own conference. He was not to lecture there,
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as previously planned, and hosting duties would be handled, for
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the most part, by others. Lear ended up arranging an "alternative
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conference" at which he, Cooper, English and Don Ecker presented
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the latest elaborations on the Dark Side Hypothesis.
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Meanwhile another storm was brewing. On March 1, 1989, an
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Albuquerque ufologist, Robert Hastings, issued a 13-page
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statement, with 37 pages of appended documents, and mailed it to
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many of ufology's most prominent individuals. Hastings opened
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with these remarks:
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"First, it has been established that 'Falcon,' one of the
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principle [sic] sources of the MJ-12 material, is Richard C.
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Doty, formerly attached to District 17 Air Force Office of
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Special Investigations (AFOSI) at Kirtland Air Force Base,
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Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sgt. Doty retired from the U.S. Air
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Force on October 1, 1988.
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"How do I know that Doty is 'Falcon?' During a recent telephone
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conversation, Linda Moulton Howe told me that when Sgt. Doty
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invited her to his office at Kirtland AFB in early April 1983,
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and showed her a purportedly authentic U.S. government document
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on UFOs, he identified himself as code-name 'Falcon' and stated
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that it was Bill Moore who had given him that name.
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"Also, in early December 1988, a ranking member of the
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production team responsible for the 'UFO Cover Up?-Live'
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television documentary confirmed that Doty is 'Falcon.' This same
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individual also identified the second MJ-12 source who appeared
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on the program, 'Condor' as Robert Collins who was, until
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recently, a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. Like Doty, he was
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stationed at KAFB when he left the service late last year."
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(Collins, a scientist, was assigned to the plasma physics group
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at Sandia National Laboratories on the Kirtland Air Force Base.
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Following his retirement he moved to Indiana and remains actively
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interested in UFOs.)
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Hastings reviewed evidence of Doty's involvement in the
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concoction of various questionable documents and stories,
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including the Ellsworth tale and the Weitzel affair. He also
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noted important discrepancies between the paper Howe saw and the
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MJ-12 briefing document. For example, while the first mentioned
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the alleged Aztec crash, the second said nothing about it at all.
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Hastings wondered, "[I]f the briefing paper that Sgt. Doty showed
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to Linda Howe was genuine, what does that say about the accuracy
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(and authenticity) of the Eisenhower document? If, on the other
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hand, the former was bogus and was meant to mislead Howe for some
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reason, what does that say about Richard 'Falcon' Doty's
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reliability as a source for MJ-12 material as a whole?"
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(Hastings, 1989). Hastings also had much critical to say about
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Moore, especially about an incident in which Moore had flashed a
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badge in front of ufologist/cover-up investigator Lee Graham and
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indicated he was working with the government on a project to
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release UFO information. (Moore would characterize this as a
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misguided practical joke.)
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Both Moore and Doty denied that the latter was Falcon. They
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claimed Doty had been given that pseudonym long after the 1983
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meeting with Howe. Howe, however, stuck by her account. Moore and
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Doty said the real Falcon, an older man than Doty had been in the
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studio audience as the video of his interview was being broadcast
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on UFO Cover-up. . . Live. Doty himself was in New Mexico
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training with the state police.
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end of part 16
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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