SUBJECT: SPEISER ON COOPER/LEAR FILE: UFO2155 ÿ LEAR AND COOPER: AN EXPLANATION (But Not an Apology) Jim Speiser 10/26/88 Ordinarily, I don't feel I have to explain my actions regarding this board or this network. I think I've developed a pretty good reputa- tion for reliability and fairness. I certainly owe nothing in the way of an explanation to Messrs. Cooper and Lear. However, I can see where some confusion may have arisen regarding my actions, especial- ly on the part of Don Ecker, whom I have a great deal of respect for, and on the part of other users who have discreetly inquired as to my reasons. These things always seem to come best in the form of chronologies, and so, a brief chronology follows. Bill Cooper first contacted this board with a story of a sighting he had on board a submarine in 1966. The story (TIRU-1.UFO) was forward- ed to Vickie Cooper for inclusion in a possible story in UFO Maga- zine. It was also sent to Stan Friedman for verification. This was back in August. I learned from Vickie Cooper that Bill (no relation) had had a con- versation with her in which the Majestic-12 documents had come up. When she mentioned the "proword" "MAJIC", he claimed to have seen that word on several documents back in his days with CINCPACFLT (Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet). About a week later, I received the first of many files from Cooper, in which he implied that he had firsthand contact with or knowledge of individuals connected with MJ- 12. (see GUIDANCE.DOC). He further implied that anyone possessing this knowledge was in great danger. I forwarded this file to both Stanton Friedman and Jamie Shandera, to see whether any of the in- formation in it checked out. I later found out that it did not. In the meantime, Cooper took a more active role in the public mes- sage base. He claimed publicly that he had lost his $75,000/year job as a marketing director, two days after having spoken with Stan Friedman. He stated that he would not be providing any more info for this reason. In the meantime, several more documents written by Cooper filtered through the ParaNet system, by way of our Ft. Smith board. They were uploaded anonymously, but were written by Cooper. They each contained the same preamble, which claimed that the info was for myself and for Stanton Friedman only, and that we were in great danger for possessing the info contained therein. (DANGER.DOC, MUGGER.DOC, PICNIC2.DOC). At around this time, a user named Jeff Felix began using the board, and asked via chat for a private meeting between him and myself. We set up a meet at the Jerry's on Scottsdale Road in Tempe (the same one at which the Phoenix Skeptics hold their monthly meetings.) At this meeting, Felix, who is all of about 24, told a bizarre tale of having been an NSA cryptology technician, of having been "fooling around" on the NSA computer, trying to come up with an encryption program, and had "stumbled across" the Majestic file, the Aquarius file, the whole ball of wax. "Its all true," he told us, "the under- ground bases, the aliens, the crashed saucers, etc." He claimed that with a modified modem, he could get back in to the files. Naturally, I was extremely skeptical, and a few days later when I asked Felix a few questions on the phone, testing his knowledge of the most basic intelligence terminology, I became flat-out incredulous when he failed the test. What was even more revealing was that Bill Cooper had provided me with some of the questions I asked Felix, and I have a captured chat session with Cooper in which he expressed his doubts of Felix's veracity. In my last online chat with Felix, he mentioned something called Project X-calibur (his spelling). He said he had discussed it with Cooper on the phone before he had called me. Cooper later told me that no, Felix had not mentioned it. He told me he had heard of it, but that it was VERY Top Secret, above his level. He said he didn't know anything more about it. Much to my surprise, Cooper later called to tell me that Project Excalibur is real, that his sources told him it was a project by MJ- 12 to extract technology from the aliens. He told me that it was important I get in touch with Felix, that if "the kid knows about [Excalibur], he's for real." Felix, in the meantime, would give me no information about Excalibur, except that a friend of his who had done the same thing he had (broken into the NSA's Cray-3 computer, the most advanced and secure supercomputer in the world), had "stum- bled across" the Excalibur file. My thinking on Cooper and Felix at this time began to center on the thought that the two of them were scamming me behind my back, and I had visions of having ParaNet become a home for unwed paranoids. When John LEar returned from his long absence, and began to join with Cooper in a series of mutual admiration sessions, I saw things getting out of control. I knew by now that Cooper was either engaging in fantasy role-play- ing, or something more sinister. The word "disinformation" has been bandied about quite freely during this entire MJ-12 mess. Now, please consider: Cooper's credentials as a Naval NCO with a back- ground in intelligence seem to check out. His information is self- contradicting and paranoid, and does NOT check out, at least with the several intelligence sources I have contacted. After the UFO COVER-UP broadcast, Cooper sent ANOTHER file by way of ParaNet RHO in BOISE, called his 10-15-88 Position Paper. In it he completely contradicts his entire previous thesis, and claims that the MJ-12 scenario as painted by Moore's group (and implicitly, by himself) is a hoax. Further, he claims to be in full agreement with John Lear (which agreement seems to be mutual, based on Lear's support of Cooper). Now I ask you, if agents of disinformation are at work to discredit the field of Ufology, who is the more likely suspect? Moore/Shandera/Friedman, who claimed from the beginning to have videotapes of bona fide government agents, and produced them for live TV, or Cooper/Lear, who seemingly plagiarized the Moore docu- ments, gave them a slightly different spin, then turned around and contradicted themselves the moment it became public knowledge, and can't even seem to agree with each other, yet support each other publicly? My locking out of Cooper was actually on the advice of Cooper himself, who accused William Pitts and the New Project Blue Book of being a military intelligence cover operation, and ParaNet of being an unwitting disinformation pipeline. To avoid becoming such a pipeline, which I'm sure no one here wants, I simply got rid of the most likely suspect. As to Lear, I don't think any self-respecting Sysop would stand for being accused of borderline treason on his public board, especially from a man who proudly displays in his office enlarged telephoto- graphs of the installation at Groom Lake, the country's most secret tactical aircraft development area, obtained by himself after at- tempting to enter the area illegally. His unqualified support for Cooper, which seems to be based solely on Cooper's unqualified support for him, I found distasteful and somehow disturbing, in light of the fact that Cooper has contradicted Lear's information. And consider: John Lear entered Ufology in early 1987, when it be- came known to a few that Moore was going to release MJ-12. Lear is known to have been a CIA operative in the past. He wears his patriot- ism on his office walls, in the form of autographed pictures of him- self standing with G. Gordon Liddy. Again, if disinformation is taking place, I ask you, who is the more likely source? And is it working? Well, consider. What if Moore/Shandera/Friedman DO have the real goods? If so, isn't it a shame that so many intelligent people, people such as Don Ecker, watched UFO COVER-UP LIVE, and instead of asking if MSF were for real, began asking if Lear and Cooper were for real? This, despite the obvious contra- dictions and obfuscations listed below: "The documents you are looking for are for the most part labeled TOP SECRET MAJIC-RESTRICTED DATA" -- Bill Cooper, 22 August "EVERY DOCUMENT YOU SEE WHICH USES...`MAJIC' IS A FRAUD!" -- Bill Cooper, 15 October "The documents produced by Mr. Moore et al are photographic copies of genuine documents which were procured at great risk." -- Bill Cooper, 22 August "I CAN PROVE BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT TO ANYONE THAT MOST OF THE INFORMATION RELEASED BY WILLIAM MOORE, ET AL...ARE OBVIOUS AND DELIBERATE FORGERIES." -- Bill Cooper, 15 October "Hmmm...let me think on that one for a while." -- Bill Cooper, when I told him that the Aquarius Telex contained a compartmentalized routing code at the top that indicated to anyone trained in military communications/intelligence that the document was either fraudulent or to be ignored for some reason. Phone conversation, 11 October "The code is ZNY." -- Bill Cooper, phone conversation, 12 October. "I got it, Jim, I just remembered after I hung up with you, its NOT ZNY, that means something else, but its _________" (my deletion). -- Bill Cooper, phone conversation, 12 October "There is a code at the head of the AQUARIUS TELEX that tells me that the information contained within it is not to be acted upon nor in any way believed...________ on the telex net informs all stations that the message CANNOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY...The code is really a type of slang/graffiti that was used by a lot of enlisted men, and sometimes by officers. I had a lot of fun with a couple of Ufologists on that one. THEY STILL BELIEVE THAT THEY WERE TESTING ME." -- Bill Cooper, 15 October ----- Emphasis and deletions above are in the originals except where indicated. ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************