125 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
125 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: MJ12 - MYTH OR REALITY ? FILE: UFO2939
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>>The following article is the first of two parts excerpted from "Just Cause",
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the quarterly newsletter of CAUS, Citizens Against UFO Secrecy. Run by Barry
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Greenwood and Lawrence Fawcett, this organization attempts to gain access to
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government documents on UFOs through the Freedom of Information Act.
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______________________
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MJ12: MYTH OR REALITY?
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______________________
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Did a secret government panel once intensively study a crashed-UFO case
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with compelling physical evidence at its disposal? Did this panel set the UFO
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debunking policy for the government which persists to this day? These are
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certainly questions which have echoed throughout UFOlogy for decades,
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generating scores of wild rumors. Many of the rumors died a quick death while
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others lingered, helped along mainly by a cadre of conspiracy
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theorists/supporters. One such story was Frank Scully's Aztec, New Mexico UFO
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crash, which formed the basis for the 1950 book "BEHIND THE FLYING SAUCERS". In
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virtually all of theses cases, the substance necessary to the credibility of
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the story was sorely lacking.
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Recent revelations have shown that at least a small number of the surviving
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rumors deserve a day in court, most notably the Roswell, NM incident of 1947,
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involving the alleged crash of a UFO and the recovery and study of the debris
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(and bodies) at Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson AFB, OH).
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A relatively new rumor has surfaced which we would like to discuss in some
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detail because it is new and it bears some interesting connections to old
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stories. CAUS does not yet endorse this as fact. Our long-standing policy of
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requiring conclusive government documentation still stands and will always
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stand. We have yet to see such documentation in this instance. Nevertheless, it
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is hoped that open discussion will elicit practical response toward proving or
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burying this latest tale.
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During the final stages of "CLEAR INTENT" [Greenwood and Fawcett, 1984], I
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had collected documents related to multiple sightings of UFOs over Kirtland
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AFB, NM in August, 1980. The story of this series of reports is in the Epilog
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of CLEAR INTENT. What wasn't inserted in the book was a document, allegedly a
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government document, which had made the rounds in the so-called UFO grapevine.
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It told of an analysis performed of the "Dr. Bennewitz" photographic data which
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had been part of the subject matter in the confirmed AFOSI [Air Force Office of
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Special Investigations] file release on Kirtland. It concluded that some of the
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photos were "legitimate negatives of unidentified aerial objects." The document
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went on to discuss, very briefly, a top-secret "Project Aquarius" and something
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called "MJ 12". These terms meant little to us at the time so inquiries were
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launched to determine the origin of the terms and the document.
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No government agency had any knowledge of the matter, and the alleged
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originator, AFOSI, said that the document was a "fabrication". Since we had no
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evidence to prove otherwise and since the document came from a source other
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than the FOIA [Freedom Of Information Act], I chose not to use it in CI. My
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copy of the Aquarius document contained several misspellings and irregularities
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in format, further adding to my suspicions but I did not rule out the
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possibility of this perhaps being a retyped version of an original, legitimate
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document by a "mole" in the military. The piece was filed and remained in limbo
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for a time.
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This past summer the mysterious "MJ 12" portion of the Aquarius document
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surfaced again when CAUS was advised by several members that California UFO
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researcher Lee Graham was conducting inquiries into MJ 12, apparently based on
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specific information from an unknown individual in the government. The
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specifics were rather intriguing.
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MJ 12, or Majestic 12, was a panel formed to investigate and report its
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findings to the President of the United States on the matter of Unidentified
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Flying Objects. It addressed in particular the Roswell, NM incident of July 2,
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1947. The panel consisted of the following individuals:
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Detlev W. Bronk
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Lloyd V. Berkner
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Vannevar Bush
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James V. Forrestal
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Gordon Gray
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Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter
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Jerome C. Hunsaker
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Donald H. Menzel
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Sidney W. Souers
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Nathan F. Twining
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Hoyt S. Vandenberg
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Robert M. Montague
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The report submitted to the President, called "MJ 12", was classified "Top
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Secret - Eyes Only", 9 back-to-back pages long, dated September 18, 1947, and
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was signed by President Harry S Truman.
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And how did Mr. Graham get this information? He saw it! He held the
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document in his hands, which was briefly supplied to him by his military
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source.
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Naturally, many questions arise out of this. Was this document an official
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document? It could have been a fake except that the signature of President
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Truman was checked and matched with an authentic Truman signature (Graham did
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this from emory as he wasn't allowed to keep a copy.) It still could have been
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faked but then why does an individual go to the trouble of typing up a lengthy,
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phony document, show it to a single person, then take it back again when much
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more could have been gained from a hoax by letting Graham keep it for
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dissemination? A document with a recognizable signature of a President would
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certainly raise a few eyebrows! It would still be suspect despite that but it
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would not be readily apparent if supplied on photocopy in lieu of an original.
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Therefore, for a time, a hoax document would catch fire in the UFO
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community, cause much comment and consequently give the hoaxer much
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satisfaction.
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Such did not happen here. It is not clear why a potential "disinformer" did
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not follow up on a promising situation, unless of course the document were
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real. The informers' behavior here is a little more consistent with his being
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a "leaker" of sensitive informatio on UFOs. However, there is no way to prove
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it at this time. A checkable copy of this document would have to surface for
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examination.
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__________________________________
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>>To be continued in another file.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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********************************************** |