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JUSTPIJol1she r ;La _rence ~ a w c e t tEdi to r :Barry Grl'lem,Qod

CAUSEAddress : P.D.Box 218

Co ventry , Conn. 0623Subs c r ip t i on:

issues-S1D (515 foreig

NUMBE R. 6 NEW SER IES December 1985

EO I TORIALThe FOrA 9u eran t ees that Inyperson hBS 11 r ight , "hleh \s leg ally en f orceable , to lo ok a t a llf ederal agen cy records except to rthose soeclf lcal ly exempted by law.There are nine ex e_p t ions t o th eFOJA, no t onc of whien pertai ns toUfO r eco ros or other I n f o r ~ a t i o nYe t , when we re quest such informa t ion we afe told that I t Is e xemptf r om rele ase due t o national security or th at Mceco ros c an not be re leased because they have been dcsOf tha t ~ t n e info r mat ionIs prope r ly class i f ied and can notbe relea sed" . The se responses rai sesus picion In the g o ~ e n m e n t ' s pronounceQents tha t uro 's are not realI f t he se s t a tements a r e t r ue howcan t h e - q o e ~ n ~ e n t use such e ~ e m p tions for ~ l t h b p ) o I n g oata lhat i s

" n o n _ ~ j $ t e nTo su ppor t th is postur e orunrealI ty, an AIr Fo r ce fact shee trelea sed to the public on Dec . 11,1969 s ta t es that the Secretary oft he Air Force was t e : ~ i n a t i n g Pro _jec t Bl ue Book and that af ter 22years of s t udy t hey had concludedlhat :(I) "No UfO reported , I n ~ e s t l g a t e dand evaluated by the Ai r Fo r ce has~ e r g l ~ c n an y Indication or a thr-eat t o our national secur i ty ."(2) has been no e ~ i d e n c esubmitted to or discover e d by theAir Fo r ce that s lgh ti ngs catego r i -zed as ' un identj (1ed' representtechnological developGents or p r in c i pies beyond the range of p resent ,

day scient i f ic knowledge ."" The r e has been no evidenceindic a t ing that s ight in gs calegorhe(l as 'unidenti fi ed ' are ex t r a _terres t r ia l vehic l es. "

Ho"ever, we are t ol d by noless than Or. J . Allen Hynek , t heAir Force ' s Bl ue Book aOvisor ror20 years , t ha t Blue Book was noth _ing mo re than a public relat ionsventure and not a scientif iC study.Who Is correc t ? Judging f r o ~Alr Forces t r ack reco rd on thema t t er i t t e l l s uS tnat the gov _ernment h.s not been up f r on t withus and s t i l l manage s to keep im_portant UFO-r ela t ed mater i a l fromthe public. We objec t t o th i s po l iCy of s ecrecy. We feel tnat tnepublic nas a righ t t o know underl a ~ and the government hos a dutyto t e i l what they n o ~ abou t UFOs.

MJ17. ' MYTH -OR REALI1 Y?Oi(l a s e ~ r e t gove r nmen tpanel once i ntensI vely s tudy acrashed -UFO case witn co mpelli ngphysical evidence a t I t ' s dispos al?Old thIs pane l set t he UfO debunkIng po l icy for the government whi Chpe r s i s t s to th is day? These a r ccer ta inly Questions "hich ha ve ec hoed througho u t UrOlogy for (lecsde s ,genera t in g scores of " l id rumors.Many of the r umo rs di ed a quickdeath while othe rs l ingered . he lped

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along mainly by a cadre of con spiracy theoris ts /supporters . Onesuch story Fra nk Scully 's Az-tec, New Me UFO cresh whichformed the the 1950 book. In vir, the sub -necessary to credibi l i tyof the story was sore lacking.Recent revelations have shownthat at least a small number of thesurviving rumors deserve a day incourt , most notably the Roswell, NMincident of 1947, involving the a l l -eged crash of a UFO and the recoveryand study of the debris (and bodies)at Wright Flel.d (Wr._PatLAf8 , Ohio)A re la t lvely neW_l'umor..- hassurfaced which we would like to dis_cuss in some detai l because I t isnew and i t bears some interest ingconnections to old s tories . CAUSdoes not yet endorse this as fact .Our lon g-standing po licy of requir _ing conclUSive government documentation s t i l l stands and will alwayss tand. We have yet to see such doc _umentation in this instance. Never theless, it is hoped that open discussion will e l ic i t pract ical response toward proving or burying thisl atest ta le .Ouring the f inal stages ofCLEAR IN TENT, 1 had collected documents relating to t he multiplesight ings of UFOs over Kirtland AFB,NM in August 1980. The story of thisseries of reports is in the Epilogof CI. What wasn't inserted in thebook was a docum ent, allegedly agovernment d o c ~ ~ e n t ~ h i c ~ a d m a d ~the rounds in the so-called UFOgrapevine. I t told of an analysisperformed by the Air Force of the"Dr. Bennewitz" photographic data,which had been part of the subJ.ectma t t er in the confirmed ArOSI f1lerelease on Kirt land. I t concludedthat some of the photos ..ere "Legi t imate negatives Of unIdentifIedaerial objects". The document wenton to discuss, very brief ly , a top_secret "Project Aquarius" and some _th i ng called "MJ12". These termsmeant l i t t le to us at the time soInquiries were launched to determinethe origin of the t ~ r m s and the document . No government agency had any

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kno .. leage of the matter and thealleged originator, AFOSI (AirFo rce Office of Special investI_gations), said th at the documentwas a " fabrication ". Si nce wehad no evidence to prove other_wise and since the document camefrom a source other than the FOIAI chose not to use i t i n C l. Mycopy of the "Aquarius" documentcontained several misspellingsand i rregulari t ies in Format, further adding to my suspicions butI did not rule out the possibil_i ty of this perhaps being a ret yped version of an original , leg_i t imate document by a "mole" Inthe military. The piece was fi ledand remained in limbo for a t im" .This past summer the mysterious "MJ12 " portion of the "Aquarius" document surfaced againwhen CAUS was advised by sev eralmembers that California UFO res earcher Lee Graham was conductingInquirIes into MJ12, apparentlybased on specific informationfrom an unknown individual in thegovernment. The specifics wererather intr iguing.MJ12, or Majestic 12, wasa panel formed to investigate andreport i t ' s f indings to the Pre_sIdent of the United States onthe matter of unidentif ied flyingobjects . I t addressed in part ic _ular the Roswell, NM incident ofJuly 2 , 1947 . The panel consistedof the fo l lowin g individuals:

Oet 1e y. w. . -B I'O . .---_ _ _ _ _Lloyd V. BerknerVannevar BUShJames V. ForrestalGordon GrayRoscoe H. HillenkoetterJerome C. HunsakerDonald H. MenzelSidney SouersNathan F. TwiningHoyt S. VandenbergRobert M. MontagueThe report submitted to t hePresident , called "MJ12", wasClassif ied "Top Secret _Eyes Only",9 back-to - back pages long, datedSeptember 18, 1947, and was signedby PresIdent Harry Truman.

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And how did Mr. Graham Qett his in formation? He saw i t t Heheld t he document 1n his ha nds ,whic h wa s b r ief ly suppl ie d t o hi_by his .11i tary source.Na t urally . many Question sar i se out of thIs. Was this docu _ment an or r lc ia l document? I t couldhIve been I fake except that thesignatu r e of President Truman waschecked and matched with 8n authen _t ic T (Grah.m didthis he wasn't allow -; ::.to It s t i l l couldr then why does

have

the t r ouble ofdocu ll'len t ,then('lore8 ho..d ts -a r eca p rl!51 de n ta few eye be suspectwould not besuppli ed on aof an origin a l ., for a UBle . a hell"catch f i re In themuch commentthe hoaxer

happen her e. I ta pote nt ia l ftdls _follow up on aunles s o f eDUrea l . The I n

is a l i t t l e

1967,o ff .

~ : : ; : i ; i : ' o f th e 1947J to this affa i rmak es sense . Based on the i n f o r ~at ion unveiled by Bil l Moore , Stan ,

Fr i edman and othe r s . the Roswellc ras h was clear ly 8 major topicin high govern_ent ci rc les . Its t r ai ns credIbIl i ty to t hink tha tp i le s of _e t a l l ic debris wouldhave been sent to Wright-Patter_son AFB , Ohio from New Mex i cofor a nalysi s I f t he material weres i.pl y par ts Of what should havebeen an eas i ly-r ecognI zable radarref lector bal loon t o Army AirForce off ice rs . Afte r the arr ivalof the material at WrIg ht - Patter _son an d wherever else i t may havegone, off icIal doc umentation cea _ses . No useful government f i lesdesc r Ibing analys i s o f the debrishave been unearthed. Obviouslyanalysi s took place so_ewhe r e.Where i s the repo r t ? I f th e Ros_well obj ect were a strange deviceof s ome sort , t hen involve.ent o ft he indivi dua l s l i s t ed as MJI2members wo u ld .a ke sense.are: le t ' s see who these . e. bers

1,,,

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1>11 , 'O:IlO. . . . Co . . . 1111

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0 " ,," "AT..." ... " - " " ~ ' ". S- . 1 .. . ,j,. ..,.! 01 tlot .... ; " r . - .T _ _ . wu >_ .. II>< lhoitl St . . . /""w. . ; . " ... .. w.__ -. . . . t . . . ,01, ! . jbe ... . . . . ;".1 10 . - 14>;0. C . .C..,i, E. Ldh , . . < ' ' f - . ,..... ..... lho2 0 1 ~ ~ ~ FOI'

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r "- .. .K .....K .u>>I. "OOOCQI< H . "'.......,,, . . o;n"""

,

ROBERT M MON TAGUE _Sandia Base Commander ,Albuquerl:!ue, New MeKlco , July

1 ~ 6 7 _ February 1951

WE WANT TO WISH ALL OURSUBSCR IBERS AND SUPPORTERS AMERRY CHRISTMAS ANO HAPPY NEWYEAR. SINCE OUR LAST SEASONSGREETING WE HAVE GAINEO THE RE -LEASE or NEARLY 2000 PAGES orGOVERNMENT FILES.LE I 'S KEEP ITUP !

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(B iograp h ie s g l eaned f r om C"rren tBi ography i nue s , l a t e IUD s andWho 's Who.)

My f I r s t thoughts upon seeing_ th is li s t Of peopll! is tha t H IIUtO had crashed and was recovered,th i s would be t he kind o f pa ne l_ h a t ~ o d _ant to put togethe rto invest iga te the .an-III. All oft he s e ind ividual s were a t the topIn their respective areas of expert i se during the le te 1940$ and hadthe added benef i t of governmentexperie nce behind th e m. The Ma j es_t i c 12 indll edlA number of t hem were l a t eri nvoi ved In t he UO phenomenon. Infa c t , ful ly luif of the pan elwou ld mak e a ma rk on UFO hi s toryduring ilnd af t er 19 .117 : Hoyt Vandenberg- SaId to haveread the now _ famous 1948 "Est imateof the Situa tIo n" and subsequent l yordereD I t downgraded and destroyed

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to r lack o f evidence that UFOswere interplanetary. Roscoe Hll1enkoe t ter_ F o ~ e rboard member of NICAP and propone nt of UFO rea l i ty . Vanneva r Bush- Men tioned Inthe for . e rl y top sec re t Canad_ian "S. i th me.D" at Nove Jiber 21,1950.- a s the head Dt a c o n c e n _t ra te d et tor t" to study UFOs . Nat han 'wln1n9 - Au t ho red awe l l -known September 1947 AIrForce memo s t r ongly endorsingth e serious nature of UFOs. Don a l d M e n ~ e Author o f, books debunki ng t he UFO phen _Ollenon. Lloyd Berkner_ M e ~ b e r of t heCIA's "Robert son Panel" ot 195) .Pane l members' ba c kg rounds

show tha t mO s t had connectIonst o e i t her the t i D n a Secur i t yCounCi l o r t he Research and Dev _elopment Board (R&OB). The R&OBt igures p rom i nen tly In t ast l l10n ygiven t o us by Dr . Robert Sarb a_cher (see Just Cause ' 5) andCAUS Is convinced tha t UFO f i lemater ia l I n the R&OB'sho ldings it the Nation al ArchivesAnother cu r i ousi ty. Cener al Twining' s pro -UF O "f l yingDIscs" memo (see CLEAR INTENT,pp.21J_21A) da ted Sept e_b er 2 '.1941, comes on ly five day s a f terth e MJ1 2 report . Cou l d TwinIng 'spossible co nnection to an MJ1 2panel have had an in fluence onhIs wr i t in g o f the 9/2) /47 memo?The l i s t i ng of Vandenbergand par t i cu l a r l y Donald Menze la s MJ12 member s i s a _ajo r cur l ous i ly since both had l a te r negative invoh ement in UFOs. I f anMJ1 2 pane l concluded that UFOswe re re a l , Menze l ' s 3nd Vanden berg 's debunking _ould seem I l l ogIcal. Or _auld i t ?I t a s i ngu la r inCiden t o fhIgh na t io na l security import ance occurred , l Ike a Roswe l li ncident , s uc h could be c la ss i r ied more highly even then theH.bomb , i s t he Smi th mellO soapt l y put i t . As study of thephe nosenon p r ogr essed, sec recywould be a t the utGost i ~ p o r t a n c eand any ef for t t o di f f use th e

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in te res t of lhe public and n o nneed-la -know pers onnel would beencouraged. Therefore , CeneralVandenberg. by batting down Project Sign's -Estimate or the Si t uation ", woul d be preven t i ng un due attention from being drewn tothe subject by Project Sign personnel , who could not be regardedas people having access to date.ore highly class i f ied than theH_bollib . I t was too vislbll! to bepart o f en "inner circ le ". Th e"Est1Mte"a lso very l Ikely lackedthe proor to jus t i fy an interplan_elary ~ p l . n a t i o n for UFOs.

hi s e ~ 8 m l n a t l o n of the piece,Smi th was to return i t to thegov ernmen t . When pressed by h isInterviewers to whom the pIec ewas to be S .l th saidI t wasn ' t theCIA but "8group - . Heto SOlve thaident i ty _ for{Columbus OhioI n the

Or Menzel' s s kepticism, I nl igh t ",f h is supposed lIIembeuh lp ; ' : : : ~ 1 ! iin MJ12, . I g h l be put Into the 5 .. e ley a nd oncategory as Ceneral Vandenbe r g ' s ..at ter s of national inte r est .of being loya l and cooperative in Th i s group wa s said to have beennot discussiog a na t iooa l sacur i ty c r ea ted in the ear ly 1950s andl Iat ter . However, i t i s d i f f i cu l t was cal led t he ~ 5 4 1 1 2 Gr ou p ".to i ~ a g i n e Or. Menzel .riting ) 54/12 was said to Include theto ta l ly skept i cal UFO books and Director of th e CIA snd the Sec.spending so much time over so . a ny re t ar y of Defense, , .ong o thers ,years arguing against UFOs I f he which sounds ra ther s imilar towere privy to a crashed UFO and MJI2. Could MJ12 have been anoccupants. Ei th er he .a s never in - ear ly inc arnat ion of the 54/12volved with I'IJ12 o r he was a ve ry Croup?good actor . ( In teres t ingly , Or. . UFO researche r Or. RichardMenzel had a UFO s ight ih9 in 1949 S igismond conrirmed t o CAUS yiawhich he could not e ~ p l a i n [see phone of his recol lect ion of aI ntern. UFO Rep. , Nov/Dec 82,pg.11) UFO le c ture by Or. Edw ard Condonthough he t r I ea hard to e ~ p l a i n i t l a t the Uniyersl ty of Colorado InMenul ' s involvement Is clear ly a 1966 (see In tern . UFO Rep., Sep lcontrov e r s i a l point in an HJ 12 the_ Oct. 198) , pgs ) - 5, 16J. IIhen Or .ory wh Ich argues for evidence, ev l _ Condon .a s uke d about the 1958dence , EVI.OENCE. from I t ' 5 p r o p o n - _ . " , ~ ~ ' i { l n d a d e I s . , Brazi l IJFO photoents . seH!'!s , he seemed to fa l ter InThis NJ12 theoty does cOile h Is knowledge o f th e o.lIse. Theclose to a proposi t ion by Haccabee l a t e e ~ l n e n t physic is t Dr . Ceorge(Revised UFO History, 1982 [ 1 3 ) ~ ) G ~ m o w , s i t t ing In t l l l l audience,that' sa , l I , n[ghly_cLassified appeared very in teres ted in thegroup, perhaps coo rdinated by In t - case . Condon ' s lukewar. assurs-e i l igence arms of the milI tary , nce tha t the case would be stud -studied the Roswell debr is in de- l ed did not please Ga mew, who, Int a i l . The inclusIon or S" nclia 8ase, appa r ent fru s t ra t i on , blurted outNM Com.aoder Robert Montague argues tha t In 1951 he and Ceoera l Cur _favoubly fOf th 1s. t i s LeMay, former head of SAC ,Several other possible conn _ had served on a secre t uro comm _!!ct tons to an NJ1 2 gr oup should be l t t ee , with the purpose of eval-noted here. In N"vembet 1961 , Wil- ua t ing uros . Cou l d th Is com.l t teeber t SmI th was interviewed by UFO- have been MJ12 or II descendent?10g1sts C.W. Fitch and Ceorge Pop- 1 have p layed both In gel ' sovitch of Akron, Ohio. S ~ i t h told and devi l ' s advocate in th is re -of how he was loaned a piece o( a view of a rumor. We have e i the rUFO shot o ff over Wash. D.C. in ono thu story destine(l for theJuly 1952 by the Air rorce . Afte r dung heap Of II rea l hot fotato!COMMENTS??? t he Ed t o r .