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