One of the nation’s leading
sponsors of UFO research and investigations, the Fund for
UFO Research, has had a long-standing secret relationship with the CIA
and the U.S. Intelligence community. Dr. Bruce Maccabee, an
optics and laser specialist with the Naval Surface Weapons Laboratory
near Washington, DC, one of the Fund’s founders and members of the
group’s Executive Committee, has been secretly meeting with CIA
officials since 1979, briefing them about various UFO matters and
investigators.
In a recent interview, Maccabee confirmed that he has given a
number of briefings on UFOs at CIA
Headquarters at Langley, Virginia, the most recent of which was on
Friday, May 28, 1993, just before the Memorial Day weekend. While the
latest presentation was primarily about "residual magnetic effects"
alledgedly discovered after an incident near Gulf Breeze, Florida, other
meetings with the CIA have involved such matters as "MJ-12," the Roswell
incident, purported UFO photos and films, physiological effects on UFO
witnesses, psychic phenomena and UFO researchers.
Maccabee described one meeting at a CIA conference room that he said was
"standing room only," in which he briefed CIA personnel on the supposed
super- secret "MJ-12"
group detailed in "documents" revealed by William L. "Bill" Moore,
a person who subsequently claimed to be a government disinformation
agent. At the same time and for undisclosed reasons, Maccabee
briefed the CIA men on the CIA’s own UFO files released under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Following the "MJ-12" conference, Maccabee was told
by Ron Pandolfi, a CIA official who is Maccabee’s main contact at
the agency, that he had "created a lot of spies" within the CIA. It
seems that in the aftermath of the session CIA officers began snooping
on each other and combing each other’s files in some sort of bizarre
search for evidence of the fabled UFO control group, sparked by
Maccabee’s talk. Maccabee even persuaded Pandolfi to have the CIA’s
librarian for "MJ-12" references in the Roscoe
HillenKoetter (an early CIA director) files. The results were
negative, reportedly.
Maccabee first approached the CIA in early 1979 after traveling to New
Zealand to investigate the filming of an alledged "UFO" from a plane by
a television crew. Although most people who viewed the film were
unimpressed by the jumpy blob of nocturnal light, Maccabee for unclear
reasons, decided the film represented some sort of probative evidence of
UFOs and set out to bring it to the attention of CIA officials. He then
put out feelers through his contacts with companies performing tasks for
the CIA, and later a meeting was set up at CIA Headquarters, during
which he screened the film and summarized his analysis of it.
A short time later, Maccabee revealed details of his meeting to W.
Todd Zechel, founder of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS)
and UFO researcher specializing in government coverup. Zechel had
initiated a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the CIA in
September 1977 in conjunction with Peter Gersten, a New York
attorney, and Ground Saucer Watch, a Phoenix-based UFO group for which
Zechel was Director of Research. In December 1978 the suit resulted in
the CIA releasing more than a thousand documents it had claimed didn’t
exist prior to the suit.
In recorded conversations with Zechel, Maccabee disclosed
that a CIA official had taken him aside after the New Zealand UFO film
briefing and revealed that he was the custodian of the CIA’s UFO files.
These files, the official said, consisted of some 15,000 UFO-related
documents, of which, he claimed, only "two or three thousand were really
interesting," the remainder being mostly mundane Foreign Broadcast
Information Service (FBIS) reports and items of lesser
interest. All of these documents had been turned over to the CIA’s
Freedom of Information Staff, the official told Maccabee, in response to
the FOIA suit Zechel had filed.
It should be noted, at this point, that the CIA had been ordered to
search all of its files for UFO-related documents and make a full
accounting of them. This Stipulation and Order was in accordance with an
agreement Zechel and Gersten had worked out with the CIA’s
attorney and a U.S. Attorney at a Status Call hearing on the suit on
July 7, 1978. It was then that Zechel had, in a rather forceful manner,
threatened to have CIA officials criminally prosecuted for issuing false
replies to FOIA requests on UFOs. Faced with this, the CIA
had backed down and agreed to cooperate. However, subsequently the CIA
only accounted for 1,000 documents and claimed to be withholding a mere
57.
What Maccabee was told in confidence by the CIA’s UFO files
custodian dove- tailed exactly with statements made by CIA
representatives during the course of the suit, during which attorney
Gersten was led to believe in excess of 10,000 documents would be
made available. There was also a letter to Zechel from the CIA’s
FOIA staff asking him to suspend action on a particular request,
stating, "1,000 pages of additional UFO related documents have just been
located" and were being processed.
It was also clear from analyzing the documents released on December 15,
1978, that the CIA was continuing to be deceptive. Brad
Sparks, a researcher with CAUS, found references in the
released material to more than 200 other UFO- related documents which
the CIA had failed to acknowledge. Moreover, it was evident the CIA had
carefully selected the documents it released, even with heavy
censorship. The CIA only accounted for documents related
to matters Zechel and Sparks had uncovered during their investigation of
CIA involvement, and excluded many others such as conclusions of its
emergency studies of UFOs in 1952, 1957, 1965, 1967, and others. These
studies were carried out in secret, utilizing Domestic Contact Service
(a.k.a. Domestic Collection Division) agents, during a number of UFO
flaps and in conjunction with the
Condon Committee study
(1966-68).
A Missed Opportunity
In March 1979, after the CIA filed deceptive affidavits with the court
about its purported search of files, Gersten set out to file an
Order to Show Cause Why the CIA Should Not Be Held in Contempt of
Court. The Show Causeorder asked the court to
penalize the CIA for failing to comply with the Stipulation and Order
agreed to in 1978.
It was during the construction of the Show Cause motion that Maccabee
made his remarkable revelations to Zechel, who immediately asked if he
could speak with the CIA officer. Shortly, Maccabee informed
Zechel that the CIA man refused the request. Maccabee
also declined to identify the CIA official, other than to say he was
formerly a medical doctor with the CIA’s Office of Scientific
Intelligence who had become the head of a CIA subgroup that among other
things conducted research concerning psychic phenomena.
Zechel hurriedly informed Gersten of Maccabee’s
disclosures, but attempts to enlist Maccabee’s cooperation with the suit
were met with refusal and obfuscation, including an attempt by Maccabee
to mislead Brad Sparks by telling him the briefing did not take place at
CIA headquarters, and he claimed to be unsure if the men he met with
were CIA employees. This clever manipulation of the facts threw Sparks
off the trail and made Zechel’s information about the meeting appear to
be suspect.
It was clear from Maccabee’s other statements to Zechel that
Maccabee intended to cooperate with the CIA on a continuing basis
and that he hoped to become its sort of UFO-man-on-call, perhaps being
dispatched around the world to investigate UFO sightings--sort of the
James Bond of UFO encounters. Zechel found this to be a rather silly
fantasy in light of the fact he had found the CIA had been conducting
secret studies of UFOs since 1952, and perhaps even before that, and had
utilized high-tech cameras, sensing devices and a nationwide field staff
of agents who became covert operatives in 1973.
In any case, no thanks to Maccabee the Order to Show Cause was
filed one day late and thrown out of court when the U.S. District Court
judge upheld the CIA’s Out of Time motion. The CIA had been 88 days late
with its filing, surpassing a 60 day extension by 28 days. But that
mattered not to Judge John Pratt, whose rulings had been reversed five
times in the past by higher courts for decisions unfairly favorable to
the CIA.
In the years since, Maccabee and Zechel had several phone
conversations revolving around Macabee’s relationship with the CIA. At
one point, Zechel asked him, directly, if he was working for the CIA.
"You might say that," Maccabee replied. In April 1990, however, Maccabee
began to back-pedal on what he’d been told by the CIA’s UFO files
custodian in 1979. Suddenly he contended the official had said "there
might be as many as 15,000 UFO-related documents" scattered throughout
headquarters. In this version, The CIA man had merely been speculating
about the totality of the CIA’s collection, judging by the one or two
thousand he had control over.
The 1990 interview with Maccabee was witnessed by UFO lecturer
Robert Hastings as it played over a speaker phone in Zechel’s
office. Several years earlier, Hastings had called Maccabee about
another matter and in passing asked him about reports of his contacts
with the CIA, the 1979 briefing. Maccabee feigned puzzlement and denied
the whole thing.
In the most recent interview, Maccabee continued to cling to his
contention that the CIA official had been guessing about the 15,000
number. When it was pointed out to him this was illogical in light of
the fact the acknowledged custodian would have no reason to suppose
another 13,000 documents were located in other files, Maccabee had no
response other than to assert it seemed logical to him.
In point of fact, the custodian of the UFO files had merely
inherited them as the result of being "Keeper of the Wierd," as Maccabee
described it. There were general files on UFOs from several CIA
offices, including Scientific Intelligence, thereby presenting no
basis to suppose there were large numbers of additional documents
elsewhere or for making an educated guess as to their total. In other
words, why would a person who believed he was custodian, that 13,000
other UFO documents were being stored in other places somewhere in the
CIA?
The answer seems clear: Maccabee treasures his secret relationship with
the CIA more dearly than he feels any need to be
forthright about matters vitally important to objective researchers.
Although for years Maccabee has closely guarded the custodian’s
identity, in the most recent interview he confirmed the official’s name
is Christopher C. "Kit" Green, more recently the chief of the
Biomedical Sciences Department at General Motors. Dr. Green attained a
Ph.D. in Neurophysiology in 1969 and in 1976 received his M.D., Doctor
of Medicine, degree. Green was awarded the CIA’s National Intelligence
Medal for his work on a "classified project" from 1979 to 1983,
precisely the years in which Maccabee was meeting with him at CIA
headquarters. Green uses somewhat of a cover story to describe his CIA
work, calling himself a "Scientific Advisor on the Advisory Board to the
Directorate of Intelligence, CIA."
According to Maccabee, Green sought out Bill Moore
in 1988 or 1989, shortly after Moore had his 15 minutes of fame as a
technical consultant for "UFO Cover-Up? Live!," the disastrous two-hour
TV special that featured back-lit ravings by "Falcon" Doty and "Condor"
Collins. Subsequently, Green became BLUEJAY in
Moore’s fabled
aviary, although it’s unclear
if Green realized he’d become a member of the flock. But then birds of a
feather do flock together, don’t they?
According to Maccabee’s account, "BLUEJAY" Green
volunteered to carry out special missions for Moore, the
confessed disinformationist. One of these assignments involved Green
trying to make contact with Robert Gates, the Director of Central
Intelligence under President George Bush. It appears Moore told Green
that Gates held some lofty position in the current configuration of the
mythical "MJ-12," and Green was supposed to
approach gates by passing some sort of code word or phrase, a scenario
right out of an old pulp spy novel. Maccabee, with some disgust,
says Green "bungled" the code word and the rendevous fell through.
Remarkably, Maccabee seems not to understand how foolish all this
looks to people who have intensly studied the government’s handling of
UFOs over the years, nor does he seem to question the
validity of Moore’s activities, long after Moore publically
confessed to being a liar and betrayer of fellow ufologists, a la his
contention in 1989 that he was a "controlled informant" at the annual
MUFON symposium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
At this point we are forced to review the whole sordid history
surrounding Bill Moore, his associate Rick Doty and his
highly dubious claim to have been ordered to spy on Paul Bennewitz
by members of unnamed agencies of the United States Government. This
review is necessary in order to appreciate the lack of judgement that
Dr. Maccabee (and therefore FUFOR) has demonstrated in his
continuing support for and association with Bill Moore and more
importantly Bill Moore’s best known creation--the MJ-12 hoax.
Paul Bennewitz is a man with a long history of mental illness
who, when lucid, ran a company called Thunder Scientific Corp., a
manufacturer of temperature and humidity measuring devices, in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Bennewitz claimed to have observed
and filmed alien spacecraft activity over restricted areas of Kirtland,
AFB and tried to interest Air Force officials in his sightings.
Robert Hastings, a resident of the same city, spent some time with
Bennewitz on two occasions after stories of Bennewitz’s UFO
encounters began to surface. Contrary to Moore’s claims that Bennewitz
had seen and filmed super- secret UFO-like craft over the Manzano
Weapons Storage Area and the Coyote Canyon Test Site, Hastings found the
films to be hoaxes so crude and poorly done as to be laughable. It was
quite obvious, Hastings says, that one film was of several birds in
flight (metaphorically appropriate, wouldn’t you say?). During the
screening, Bennewitz claimed the birds’ flapping wings were alien
spacecraft "force fields" moving up and down. Another film "looked like
Bennewitz had thrown it on the floor and walked on it," Hastings
added. The film was nothing more than a series of smudges, hair and
other debris. A third film purportedly of a "green fireball" phenomenon
as reported in one of Doty’s bogus documents was found by Hastings
to be somewhat drawn on the underside of the 8 mm film strip with a
green magic marker.
Hastings, a compassionate and fair-minded person, quickly realized
Bennewitz was a mentally disturbed man suffering from paranoid
delusions revolving aound alien beings. At one point, Bennewitz showed
Hastings print-outs of complete garble which he claimed were messages
from the "aliens." Bennewitz interpreted the garble for Hastings,
explaining that the aliens had tracked him from his hotel to Bennewitz’s
home, that they liked him and wanted to rendevous with him later that
evening at a remote site. Hastings said thanks but no thanks. A long
time friend of Bennewitz’s has confirmed that Bennewitz has been
repeatedly hospitalized by his family and treated for mental illness
over the past decade, long before Moore had reportedly began working his
alledged disinformational magic on Bennewitz.
For a better impression of Bennewitz’s mental state, check out this
description taken from an advertising flyer for Christa Tilton’s
’The Bennewitz Papers, ’a book based upon his ramblings:
"Bennewitz
reported [that] horrid people began following him, breaking into his
home to install wire taps, Air Force men showing up at his doorstep
at all hours..he was being drugged and was convinced aliens were
coming into his home and sticking him with needles. He became a
frightened man. He also felt like the government was possibly behind
some of the happennings."
There was probably thousands
of people all over the country suffering from the same sort of paranoid
delusions as Paul Bennewitz. What set Bennewitz apart was that he
came into contact with an AFOSI agent named Sgt.
Richard Doty.
"Falcon" Doty first surfaced during an attempt to sell a hoaxed incident
about a pitched battle with aliens at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, where
Doty had been stationed. Bob Pratt, armed with a legitimate
looking report about the reported case that had been concocted and
leaked to Doty, conducted a lengthy investigation for the ’National
Enquirer’ but failed to find even a shred of supporting evidence. Later,
Doty began sending phony letters to APRO, trying to
bait them in similar fashion. Then, while stationed at Kirtland AFB, New
Mexico, Doty came into contact with Bennewitz as a result of
Bennewitz’s attempts to get Air Force officials to listen to his
rantings about alien encounters.
While other Kirtland officials had politely declined to meet with
Bennewitz, Doty apparently saw an opportunity to make hay
with Bennewitz’s bales. Doty even invited Jerry Miller, a former
investigator with the Air Force’s 4602nd Sq., the group that did legwork
for Project Blue Book, to a meeting with Bennewitz. Miller
came away convinced Bennewitz was nothing more than a mentally
disturbed person, a "nut case," and advised Doty that he was
wasting his time.
But devious Doty was not discouraged. He concocted reports incoporating
some of Bennewitz’s stories, adding his own embellishments, then sought
out Bill Moore, whom he heard speaking about UFOs on a local
radio station. The pair soon found a great deal in common: Doty was
determined to make big money by concocting phony UFO stories and Moore
was determined to get rich by exploiting the subject. In fact, Moore
told Todd Zechel in early 1980 that "I’ll bet you’ve heard that you
can’t make money off UFOs? Well, I proved that wrong!" Bruce Maccabee
was present when Moore made this brag, but apparently did not see what
dangers it foretold.
Moore showed some of Doty’s reports during a documentary on UFOs
produced by Ron Lakis, and later Barry Greenwood and Larry
Fawcett of CAUS captured one of them on video tape freeze-frame, then
submitted FOIA requests for the documents. Doty responded to the request
by forwarding several "reports," which were dutifully reprinted in
’Clear Intent’ , Greenwood and Fawcett’s book. This process legitimized
the "documents" and convinced even skeptical UFO advocates that
Bennewitz had stumbled onto something important.
Shortly thereafter, members of CAUS took the bait Doty had dangled.
Peter Gersten CAUS’s attorney, made contact with Doty through
Bill Moore and a meeting was arranged. There, Doty alluded to
possessing other "hot" information on UFOs and subsequently offered to
sell Gersten "documents," stating he needed money because his wife had
recently divorced him and he owed legal fees. Gersten wisely declined
the offer, fearing he was either being set up for criminal prosecution
or that Doty was attempting a swindle.
Moore, the man who had resurrected the Roswell incident (a
case for which the best explanation at that point seemed to be some sort
of top secret constant altitude balloon project), began working with
Doty on developing documents to support crashed saucer recoveries,
knowing these would have a greater financial value than Bennewitz’s
"sightings." Documentary filmmaker Linda Howe was invited to
Kirtland to meet with Doty, during which she was shown a
purported "Presidential Briefing Paper" on crashed saucers that
described four such incidents. Doty also regaled Howe with tales about
captured aliens known as EBEs (Extraterrestrial
Biological Entities), a term invented by Paul Bennewitz, the
same person responsible for "greys," a ’classification’ for little E.T.-
type aliens now in common use.
Doty continued to string Howe along for several months, telling her
she’d been selected by a super-secret control group known as "MJ-12" to
make startling disclosures to the public about alien beings, promising
to deliver lengthy film footage of downed saucers and even to introduce
her to a live alien. Howe ate it up with a spoon, proving once again,
that you can fool some people all of the time.
Moore and Doty came up with a clever scheme to disguise
the fact they were in cahoots. Shortly after Howe’s Kirtland visit, Doty
phoned Howe and charged, "Why did you tell Bill Moore that you
and I had slept together?" Up to this point, Howe had never in her life
spoken with Moore, but after Doty’s unsettling accusations she tracked
him down and called him to find out why he had told Doty a lie about
her. Moore, of course, denied the charge, but ’confessed’ he was also
working with "MJ-12" and suggested they get together to
compare notes.
In this manner, Moore was able to reinforce Doty’s bogus disclosures
without appearing to be a co-conspirator. It was a method he used
throughout the entire scam: by bringing in credulous outsiders such as
Howe and Lee Graham and circulating the bogus material among them or
just flashing it on them, he was able to obfuscate the origin of the
"documents" and make it seem as though others were involved with the
"leaks." In reality, the "Majestic-12" was "Swindlers-2,"
Doty and Moore.
For example, Moore gave a copy of the "briefing paper" Doty had
shown to Howe to Capt. Bob "Condor" Collins, who subsequently
read parts of it over the phone to Howe, who recognized it as identical
to the one flashed by Doty. Howe became even more impressed by the fact
an active-duty officer had the "briefing paper, " and by then was
arranging with HBO to broadcast Doty’s earth-shaking disclosures.
"Condor" Collins claimed to have gotten most of his information
about UFOs, captured aliens and underground bases from
U.S.A.F. Lt. Col Ernie Kellerstrauss, with whom he had served at
Wright-Patterson AFB. Kellerstrauss may have been the officer who
purportedly had spent a year with EBE-1, during which he’d learned of
the critter’s preference for strawberry ice cream. Now retired and
living near Dayton, Ohio, "Hawk" Kellerstrauss refuses to comment
on Collins’ claims.
In any case, when Moore came to Denver to meet with Howe, he proposed
they work together to exploit "MJ-12’s" revelations, suggesting that
Howe do the film and he’d write the book. Moore added that he
intended to get "very rich" from the effort. Howe, convinced she’d been
chosen to perform a great mission for the government (the old "Messiah"
syndrome), which according to Doty, wanted to come clean about
UFOs, said she wanted only to perform her patriotic duty and
desired only to be reimbursed for her expenses.
Meanwhile, Moore conferred with Brad Sparks, whom he
regarded as an expert on the government’s handling of UFOs.
Moore asked Sparks which crashed saucer cases he though offered the most
promise for pay dirt, and Sparks said he thought the Roswell incident,
about which Moore had previously co-authored a book, and one that
reportedly occured in December 1950 near the Texas-Mexico border. The
latter case had been researched by Todd Zechel, who first heard about it
in 1964 from a colleague in the Army Security Agency whose uncle
had purportedly headed the recovery. Sparks, along with Jerome Clark,
had been kept apprised of Zechel’s investigation.
Two manuscripts written by Zechel on the case had been obtained
by Moore under suspicious circumstances. One was acquired from Jerome
Clark, with whom Zechel had been writing a book. (Clark reportedly
leaked the report to Moore in revenge for Zechel pulling out of the book
deal, which Zechel claims was caused by Clark refusing to do his
share of the work.) A second, up-dated report was given to Moore by
Harper and Row’s West Coast office, purportedly in an effort to
evaluate the validity of it.
In December 1984, Jaime Shandera, a TV producer and friend of
Moore’s, received in the mail a roll of 35 mm film that contained the
new improved "Presidential Briefing Paper." Quickly, Moore set about
circulating this material in his typical manner of legitimizing phony
documents. Later, the hoax briefing papers would be revealed to the
world in a full-blown press conference and be shown on ABC-TV’s
prestigious ’Nightline’ with Ted Koppel (in June 1987) and other
shows.
It is no surprise that the briefing papers devoted a great deal of space
validating Moore’s pet case, the 1947 Roswell incident, and only a scant
paragraph to the 1950 case. Moore further tipped his hand by the manner
in which the 1950 crash is described. Zechel’s early report on it,
written in 1978, located it near Laredo, Texas, while his up-dated
report, written in 1982, claimed it occurred near Del Rio, Texas, nearly
400 miles from Laredo. The two reports also had slight differences in
dates, the first stating it happenned on Dec. 7, 1950 and the second
said Dec. 5, 1950.
Moore solved these contradictions by dividing the differences in half,
stating the location of the crash as "El Indio-Guerrero," which is about
halfway between Laredo and Del Rio, and the date as "6 December
1950," precisely between Zechel’s two dates. But the division method is
not quite as inspired as Moore’s description of the flying saucer as
"almost completely incinerated," adding that what little debris remained
was taken to Sandia Lab.
One can almost picture Moore’s devious mind churning as he created the
briefing paper. He had come to hate Zechel because the CAUS
founder had dared to criticize the Roswell incident in the report leaked
by Jerome Clark, plus he had heard Clark blame Zechel for the
collapse of his marriage--the ex-Mrs. Clark had apparently counted on
the Clark/Zechel book elevating them out of near-poverty. So
Moore rationalized his venom and aimed it at Zechels’s pet case. "I’ll
fix him," one can hear Moore vowing, "I’ll burn up his damn saucer."
Throughout the affair Moore dropped a number of clues to indicate his
involvement in creating the briefing paper--almost crying out, "Stop me
before I hoax again!" One example of this is an article in ’Fate’
magazine written by Jerome Clark, during the period Clark was still
enoumored with Moore. Clark had worshipfully told the story of
how the briefing "documents" had come to light. Moore said he was
ensconced in a motel room when "at precisely 5:00 P.M. someone knocked
on the door and a man appeared with a bundle under his arm. He said to
Moore that he had 17 minutes to do whatever he wanted with what he was
about to be given. He could copy it but couldn’t keep it. _Moore had a
camera and did his best_ . The document purported to be a briefing paper
telling newly-elected President Jimmy Carterabout MJ-12,Project Aquarius, the little grey men and the rest
(emphasis added.)
Hmmm, could this be the same 35 mm photos that showed up in Shandera’s
mailbox? When the obvious evidence of Moore’s guilt was brought to
Clark’s attention, he was quick to defend his pal. "Oh, no that was a
_different_ briefing paper," Clark disclaimed. Oh, yeah? So what
happened to _that_ briefing paper, Jerry?
Of course, by this time Moore had begun to distance himself from Rick
Doty, since it had become obvious to a number of people who had
communicated with Doty that he was a shameless, compulsive liar. Moore
didn’t denounce Doty, however, he merely tried to shift the "Falcon"
identity to someone else, telling Clark that "Falcon" was really a
Defense Intelligence Agency employee. Curiously, the new "Falcon" just
happened to be telling Moore the same things as the old "Falcon,"
only the spotlight was now presumably off Doty.
In similar fashion, when it became evident to low-level researchers that
Paul Bennewitz was mentally ill and his information unreliable,
Moore cunningly claimed to be a disinformation agent who had been
assigned to spy on and confuse Bennewitz. Supposedly, this was
necessitated by Bennewitz having stumbled onto some big UFO secrets, but
as we have seen, Bennewitz’s sightings were merely a product of his own
jumbled mind. In reality, Moore adopted the "secret-agent" stance in
order to protect Doty and give himself the opportunity to protest his
innocence in the future should anyone prove his "Presidential
Briefing Paper," "MJ-12" or "Aquarius" documents
to be bogus. That is, he could always claim he was "just
following orders," much in the manner of the Nazis brought to trial for
war crimes.
There are those who will no doubt continue to contend that all of this
is the result of some giant conspiracy designed to disinform, confuse
and mislead Maccabee, Moore, Linda Moulton Howe, the Fund, and the rest
of ufology. The available evidence certainly indicates Moore and Doty
fabricated the MJ-12 hoax independently and almost certainly for
personal gain. In our opinion there is little doubt that as more and
more of this grand hoax caves in on him, Moore will retreat further
behind his "controlled agent" persona and leave it up to his dwindling
followers to sort it all out.
Remarkably, even after Moore made his confession in Las Vegas (an
appropriate setting) thanks to Maccabee’s influence he was still able to
have himself and Doty portrayed as authentic heroes in books by
Whitley Strieber (Majestic) and Howard Blum (Out There). Even
best-selling author Sydney Sheldon contributed to the salute to
this fine pair of American heroes, one of whom had "confessed" to
driving an innocent man nuts!
Actually a tip of the hat from the creators of Hitler’s diary and the
author of the Howard Hughes hoax, Clifford Irving, would
have been a hell of a lot more appropriate.
To be frank, the whole sorry mess is a great example of what happens
when you allow the foxes to guard the chickens. Ufology, which lives by
the old "hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil" when it comes to each
others pet cases, wallows in hoaxes and misinformation as a result. But
that wouldn’t be so discouraging if it were not for the fact all this
rubbish is passed onto the public in the form of books, TV shows and
lectures.
The only leading ufologists who have acted responsibly in this whole
affair have been Greenwood and Fawcett of CAUS. For their troubles, they
have been vilified, hated, resented or just plain ignored by the rest of
ufology in the mad rush to grind out books sparked by Moore’s
deceptions. In this field of study, the hoaxers are celebrated and those
who cry foul are sent packing.
The Sea Gull & The Pellican
Dr. Maccabee’s (the "SEA GULL" in Bill Moore’s
foolish
aviary) activities and conduct
throughout the whole MJ-12 affair must now be critically re-examined.
How much involvement did he have in spreading the MJ-12 hoax? How much
influence did Ron Pandolfi (the "PELLICAN") have over his
conduct during this whole affair?
Dr. Maccabee published a paper titled ’UFO Landings Near
Kirtland AFB or Welcome to the Cosmic Watergate’ in 1985. The report
was co-authored by Bill Moore and printed on FUFOR stationary. The
report is an investigation into the alledged incident described in the
Kirtland Landing Document dated Sept. 9, 1980 released by
HQ/AFOSI. A careful examination of the circumstances surrounding the
document (and Maccabee’s _own report_) clearly shows that the document
is a fraud created by Doty. Dr. Maccabee’s apparent support for
the Kirtland document lent credence to Doty and his fraudulent claims at
a critical time. If Dr. Maccabee had exposed Doty at this point a great
deal of time and effort could have been saved by researchers. Dr.
Maccabee now privately admits that the whole MJ-12 mess is probably
a hoax. He justifies his position of providing support for the
MJ-12 investigation by maintaining that there is a secret
control group, a MJ-12 "by any name" as he puts it. Apparently the
details aren’t important. When did Maccabee know the MJ-12 material was
fraudulent, was it before he provided Stan Friedman with $16,000
of Fund money?
It must be pointed out here that the Fund rejected a detailed proposal
to re- sue the CIA under FOIA submitted by Todd Zechel a few years ago.
Zechel had outlined a plan to go after the 15,000 documents described by
Maccabee’s friend, Kit Green, and had asked for a paltry $500 to get the
effort rolling, using a dilligent attorney who had volunteered to do the
legal work. The Fund quickly rejected Zechel’s proposal, but later
handed $16,000 to Stan Friedman in an effort to validate the
MJ-12 documents. Unfortunately we are forced now to re-examine the
motives of Dr. Maccabee. We must ask if his CIA contacts had any
input into this (or any) decisions regarding proposals. This input may
not have been so obvious as one would first think. Consider the scenario
wherein Maccabee’s CIA contacts express subtle hints suggesting to
Maccabee that there may have been an MJ-12, this may have
been enough to influence his decision to make such a large grant.
Conversely, who knows what input the CIA had in Maccabee’s
rejection of Zechel’s modest proposal.
One Last Quickie
In summary, Moore runs around giving silly code names to everyone
he meets who’s connected in some way to the government, much like a 10
year old boy trying to play spy. None of these people have any direct
knowledge of UFO events from what we’ve seen, and mostly
they just repeat or re-circulate stories originated by Moore and
Doty. Moore only uses them to create an aura of mystique around
himself and to obfuscate the bogus nature of his "discoveries."
Doty apparently had a track record of financial improprieties,
and, according to Maccabee, was thrown out of AFOSI, demoted to cook and
ultimately forced out of the Air Force. Seemingly, his entry into the UFO field was part of a pattern of misconduct, and given the
willingness of many ufologists to believe wild tales, he was able to
manipulate their credulity into greater gains and glory than would have
been possible elsewhere.
Yet even after Doty’s credibility had (or should have) dropped to zero
and Moore himself had "confessed" to being a disinformationist, they
were, in late 1991, able to pull off yet another swindle.
In an announcement dated Oct. 25, 1991, Moore invited his FOCUS
newsletter subscribers to send him $25.00 in order to receive a "free
copy" of a book he was writing with Doty and Jaime Shandera. The book
was offered as a re- subscription benefit. This "free" book was supposed
to be published in January 1992, entitled, "The Scientist, the
Government & UFOs...Personal Recollections of the Paul Bennewitz
Affair...A Case Study in Disinformation." In a tabloid like rave,
Moore previewed the book thusly:
"Government cover-up;
disinformation; UFO abductions; alien underground bases; secret
treaties with extraterrestrials; plots to take over and enslave
planet Earth;
Dulce,New Mexico; Groom Lake/Area 51,Nevada;
strange goings on at Kirtland AFB; secret agents; covert operations,
mysterious radio transmissions; grey aliens; blond aliens; and much
much more!"
Reportedly, hundreds of
suckers sent in their $25.00, proving P.T. Barnum right once
again. And of course they all got stiffed:FOCUS promptly went out of
business, the "free" book never got printed and Moore next emerged as
the "executive editor" of FAR OUT magazine published by Larry Flynt
(who also publishes _Hustler_ magazine) where he began publishing
articles by some of his good friends like Bruce Maccabee.
Perhaps Moore, now that he’s gainfully employed will make refunds. But
you can probably count on that much as you can count on him making one
last confession-that he helped created the single biggest hoax in
ufology.
It is important to note here that all this should be viewed not as a
tribute to Bill Moore’s hoaxing abilities but rather in light of Dr.
Maccabee’s (hence FUFOR’s) concurrent relationship with the CIA. Has
Dr. Maccabee’s support for Moore and MJ-12 simply been the result of
poor personal judgement?
Gulf Breeze
No single individual bears greater responsibility for promoting the Gulf
Breeze case to the ufological community and probably the general public
than Dr. Bruce Maccabee. Dr. Maccabee was one of the earliest and
most vociferous proponents of the case. His technical evaluation of the
photographic evidence in the case was forceful and stressed that the
hoax explanation was unlikely due to the high degree of technical
difficulty that would be required to fabricate similar photographs. Yet
after far too much wasted time and resources most serious researchers
have come to the conclusion that indeed the case is a hoax.
One must question Dr. Maccabee’s personal and professional
judgement in this case. Did he simply become emotionally involved with
the participants (he became close friends with Ed & Frances Walters
early in the investigation) and then allow this involvement to cloud his
critical facilities? Or, is his technical ability to analyze
photographic evidence really that poor? Given his then ongoing
relationship with Ron Pandolfi of the CIA (and his
admission to having briefed intelligence officials on the case) one
could speculate that Dr. Maccabee’s public support for the case might
have been encouraged by his intelligence contacts. This would certainly
have served the CIA’s interest in keeping serious investigation of the
UFO phenomena out of the public domain. It is important to note that
Pandolfi has stated to others that he considers Ed Walters to be
a "total fraud."
We submit that even if Dr. Maccabee is an honest proponent of the
case on what he considers to be its technical merit that it is
inappropriate for him to maintain any level of secret relationship with
the CIA given his status with the Fund for UFO Research and the level of
public (media) exposure he maintains in connection with this subject.
An Embarrassing Protege’
Dr. Maccabee also maintains a relationship with Robert
Oechsler, a man whose motives in the field are at best mercenary. He
has at one point or another involved himself in virtually every aspect
of ufology. Mr. Oechsler has been variously described as a clown, a
fraud and even a con-man (in 1991 he attempted to involve several of his
then friends in the UFO field in some sort of bizarre pyramid scheme in
which participants were to send him money via Federal Express (so as to
avoid federal laws governing mail fraud)--telling at least one associate
that he intended to make several hundred thousand dollars). Mr.
Oechsler who represents himself as a former "NASA Mission
Specialist" has participated with Dr. Maccabee in the photographic
analysis of the Gulf Breeze material.
Mr. Oechsler has also made a series of fantastic claims
concerning his alledged discoveries of various secret government UFO
related projects including an operational anti-gravity chamber,
sophisticated anti-alien defense installations, a wide-ranging program
to educate the general public as to the reality of the UFO phenomenon
and others too tedious to detail here. These "discoveries" were
published by Timothy Good in his book "Alien Liaison" in England
and more recently in "Alien Contact" here in the United States. It is
virtually certain that most if not all of Mr. Oechsler’s claims are
fraudulent and he has intimated to Walt Andrus, International
Director of the Mutual UFO Network, that he fabricated at least some
of the material.
Most recently, Mr. Oechsler has been associated with the
"Guardian" case (involving an alledged UFO landing/crash in Ontario,
Canada). It is immediately apparent to anyone who views the Guardian
film or reads the accompanying documents (which detail some sort of
alliance between evil aliens and the Red Chinese) that the case is a
very poor quality hoax unworthy of the average high school student here
in the United States.
It could be argued that were there an official policy of ridicule and
debunking that this is precisely the quality of information that the
responsible intelligence agencies would want to have wide exposure. It
would serve their interests to have opportunists such as Oechsler
or sincere but every credulous individuals such as Linda Moulton Howe
acting as the mass media’s principal contacts with this subject matter.
Dr. Maccabee has made at least one trip to Ontario to investigate
the case. It is not known whether any Fund for UFO Research monies were
expended in this investigation. Mr. Oechsler has made at least 5
trips to the area - again it is unknown whether Fund for UFO Research
monies have been expended.
The most important point here is not Oechsler’s selling of this material
to the television shows ’Unsolved Mysteries’ and ’Sightings’ but Dr.
Maccabee’s clear support for the validity of the case. Dr. Maccabee
spoke in support of the authenticity of the Guardian video on at least
one television program and before the large audience of a UFO conference
in Silver Spring, MD. Once again we are forced to ask if Dr. Maccabee’s
past UFO briefings at the CIA we (as taxpayers) hope that he will
refrain from subjecting hundreds of CIA personnel to a
"Guardian" briefing. The picture of large numbers of CIA employees
expending many man-hours attempting to locate references to a Red
Chinese-alien connection is frightening.
Operation Right to Know
Operation Right to Know is a relatively new UFO
group seeking to end the secrecy concerning UFO information. They are
attempting to gather public support for their objectives via direct
political action. This group organized a small but well run
demonstration at the White House in 1992 and planned a much larger one
for 1993 (also at the White House) to be held in conjunction with the
annual MUFON symposium being held in Richmond, VA. Members of the
Fund for UFO Research had strongly objected to such a planned
demonstration. It had been reported that the fund discouraged the MUFON
organization from participating in the demonstration. While the
demonstration did take place and was well run, we can only speculate on
how much greater impact might have been achieved if there had been a
much larger turnout resulting from official MUFON encouragement. The
objections raised (primarily by Fred Whiting) had ostensibly been on
philosophical grounds. But given Dr. Maccabee’s relationship with
the CIA, the actual reasons for this opposition are in
question.
Clear & Present Danger
Perhaps the single most troubling episode involving Dr. Maccabee’s
connection with the CIA was his removal of his long time friend Larry
Bryant from the Fund for UFO Research. Larry Bryant, another of the
Fund’s founders, was present at a meeting when Maccabee revealed that he
had obtained FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service) translations
from the CIA, and subsequently submitted a FOIA request to
the Agency for other UFO-related FBIS reports. For some reason, Bryant’s
request angered the CIA, and Maccabee was scolded by Pandolfi,
who stated that Bryant’s action "could jeopardize the _Fund’s
relationship with the CIA_." Shortly, Bryant received a "Dear Mr.
Bryant" letter from Maccabee terminating Bryant’s membership in
the Fund.
Sadly, this appears to be yet another example of Maccabee valuing his
relationship with the CIA more that he values the
friendship and services of a long-time associate like Larry Bryant,
a man whose credentials as an anti- secrecy activist have been
established over 35 years of dedication to the cause, often at great
peril and expense to himself.
Maccabee Disinforms FUFOR
Apparently at the same time Maccabee was making great effort to
brief members of the CIA on various UFO matters, he did
not feel the need to extend the same courtesy to other members of the
Fund for UFO Research. The results of a cursory poll of other
members of the Fund regarding Maccabee’s intelligence contacts indicate
that none of the Fund members were fully aware of his dealings with
Pandolfi. Some of the members knew he had made overtures to the CIA and
others were vaguely aware of contacts and briefings but none were aware
of the full extent of these contacts.
When Maccabee’s activities with the CIA were
brought to the attention of Richard Hall, the Fund’s newly elected
chairman, Hall said that he and a couple of other Executive Committee
members had attempted to discourage Maccee’s overtures to the CIA. Hall
agreed that Maccabee’s CIA connections would create the
appearance of impropriety and were an obvious conflict of interest. Hall
also said that he was equally perplexed by some of the UFO cases that
Maccabee had promoted such as Gulf Breeze and the "Guardian" case.
Hall said that Maccabee’s views no longer represented the views of the
ruling body of the Fund and indicated that he would have to take steps
to sever ties between the Fund and the U.S. Intelligence community.
In Summary
Apparently all Maccabee has gotten for 14 years of cooperation with the
CIA is a handful of FBIS translations of Soviet news
accounts of Russian UFO sightings. These same reports were evidently
leaked to the U.S. news media by the CIA, perhaps in an effort to
embarrass the Soviets. The same type and quality of information can be
had by simply monitoring CNN. The actual FBIS translations
are available by region through the National Technical Information
Service for several hundred dollars annual subscription fee, no special
access is required.
We submit that it is improper for Dr. Maccabee either as an
individual or as a representative of the Fund for UFO Research to
maintain any manner of clandestine relationship with the Central
Intelligence Agency. It is improper for the Fund to portray a
contentious image concerning past and present secrecy surrounding
government UFO information while Dr. Maccabee has this ongoing
secret dialogue with CIA employees. It is improper for the Fund to
solicit evidence of government UFO cover-up and invite people to come
forward with proposals to investigate such matters while one of the
Fund’s top officials is briefing CIA officials on the latest
developments. How can the Fund be trusted to protect the proprietary
interests or privacy of those seeking to compel CIA disclosures when its
most important member is in regular contact with employees of the
Directorate of Science & Technology, CIA ? We call upon
other responsible members of the Fund for UFO Research to take
appropriate action.