SUBJECT: E B E's FILE: UFO1030 PART 11 In 1989 Moore said that "in early 1983 I became aware that Rick [Doty] was involved with a team of several others, including one fellow from Denver that I knew of and at least one who was working out of Washington, D.C., in playing an elaborate disinformation scheme against a prominent UfO researcher who, at the time, had close connections with a major television film company interested in doing a UFO documentary." He was referring to Howe, of course. The episode was a counterintelligence sting operation, part of the "wall of disinformation" intended to "confuse" the Bennewitz issue and to "call his credibility into question." Because of Howe's interest in Bennewitz's work, according to Moore, "certain elements within the intelligence community were concerned that the story of his having intercepted low frequency electromagnetic emissions from the Coyote Canyon area of the Kirtland/Sandia complex would end up as part of a feature film. Since this in turn might influence others (possibly even the Russians) to attempt similar experiments, someone in a control position apparently felt it had to be stopped before it got out of hand." In his observation, Moore said, "the government seemed hell bent on severing the ties that existed between [Howe] and [HBO]" (Moore, 1989b). Doty's assertion that Howe had misrepresented their meeting was not to be taken seriously, according to Moore, since Doty was bound by a security oath and could not discuss the matter freely Moore said that the Aztec crash, known beyond reasonable doubt never to have occurred, was something Doty had added to the document after learning from Moore of his recent investigation of the hoax. In December 1984, in the midst of continuing contact with their own sources (Doty and a number of others) who claimed to be leaking the secret of the cover-up, Moore's associate Jaime Shandera received a roll of 35mm film containing, it turned out what purported to be a briefing paper dated November 18, 1952, and intended for president-elect Eisenhower. The purported author, Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, reported that an "Operation Majestic-12," consisting of a dozen top scientists, military officers and intelligence specialists, had been set up by presidential order on September 24, 1947, to study the Roswell remains and the four humanoid bodies that had been recovered nearby. The document report that the team directed by MJ12 member and physiologist Detlev Bronk "has suggested the term 'Extra- terrestrial Biological Entities', or 'EBEs', be adopted as the standard term of reference for these creatures until such time as a more definitive designation can be agreed upon." Brief mention is also made of a December 6, 1950, crash along the Texas-Mexico border. Nothing is said, however, about live aliens or communications with them. In July 1985 Moore and Shandera, acting on tips from their sources, traveled to Washington and spent a few days going through recently declassified documents in Record Group 341, including Top Secret Air Force intelligence files from USAF Headquarters. In the 126th box whose contents they examined, they found a brief memo dated July 14, 1954, from Robert Cutler, Special Assistant to the President, to Gen. Nathan Twining. It says "The president has decided that the MJ-12/SSP [Special Studies Project] briefing should take place during the already scheduled White House meeting of July 16 rather than following it as previously intended. More precise arrangements will be explained to you upon your arrival. Your concurrence in the above change of arrangements is assumed" (Friedman, 1987). The Cutler/Twining memo, as it would be called in the controversies that erupted after Moore released the MJ-12 document to the world in the spring of 1987, is the only official document-not to be confused with such disputed ones as the November 17, 1980, Aquarius document-to mention MJ-12. (Several critics of the MJ-12 affair have questioned the memo's authenticity as well, but so far without unambiguous success.) The memo does not, of course, say what the MJ12 Special Studies Project was. MJ-12 Goes Public: Just prior to Moore's release of the MJ-12 briefing paper, another copy was leaked to British ufologist Timothy Good, who took his copy to the press. The first newspaper article on it appeared in the London Observer of May 31, 1987, and soon it was the subject of pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post and ABC-TV's Nightline. It was also denounced, not altogether persuasively, both by professional debunkers and by many ufologists. The dispute would rage without resolution well into 1989, when critics discovered that President Truman's signature on the September 24, 1947, executive order (appended to the briefing paper) was exactly like his signature on an undisputed, UFO-unrelated October 1, 1947, letter to his science adviser (and supposed MJ-12 member) Vannevar Bush. To all appearances a forger had appended a real signature to a fake letter. The MJ-12 document began to look like another disinformation scheme. Although acutely aware of the mass of disinformation circulating throughout the UFO community, Moore remained convinced that at least some of the information his own sources were giving him was authentic. In 1988 he provided two of his sources, "Falcon" (Sgt. Doty according to some) and "Condor" (later claimed to be former U.S. Air Force Capt. Robert Collins), to a television production company. (Moore and Shandera had given them avian names and called the sources collectively "the birds.") UFO Cover-up . . . Live, a two-hour program, aired in October 1988, with Falcon and Condor, their faces shaded, their voices altered, relating the same tales with which they had regaled Moore and Shandera. The show, almost universally judged a laughable embarrassment, was most remembered for the informants' statements that the aliens favored ancient Tibetan music and strawberry ice cream. Critics found the latter allegation especially hilarious. end of part 11 ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************