SPECIAL RELEASE:
      MJ-12 UPDATE
      
      ParaNet  Alpha  09/29  --  As  predicted  here,  Citizens Against UFO 
      Secrecy  (CAUS)  has published the most definitive expose' to date on 
      the mysterious MJ-12 documents.
      
      According to CAUS, the documents are a hoax.
      
      In  the  September  issue  of  the organization's journal JUST CAUSE,  
      editor  Barry  Greenwood  enumerates several points which, taken as a 
      whole,  fairly  conclusively show the documents to be fraudulent. The 
      most  impressive  of  these  has to do with the Top Secret "Executive 
      Order,"  a  document  allegedly signed by then-President Harry Truman 
      authorizing  the formation of the Majestic-12 group. The document was 
      listed  as Attachment "A", "Executive Order #092447", in the Schedule 
      of  Attachments  to  the Hillenkoetter Briefing. The number, "092447" 
      is  not  an  authentic  Executive Order number, but rather represents 
      the  date the order was signed - 9/24/47. CAUS's research at the Tru-
      man  Library  shows  that no EOs were signed that day; that EO's 9891 
      thru  9896 all cover the period in question; that none are missing or 
      out of order; and that none have anything to do with MJ-12 or UFOs.
      
      
      Other  CAUS evidence includes points which have been covered by Para-
      Net,  Saucer  Smear  and  CSICOP, such as the apparent fraudulence of 
      the  Cutler  to  Twining  memo,  the irregular dating format, and the 
      seemingly  shoddy quality of research employed by the Moore-Shandera-
      Friedman  team  (MSF).  CAUS  also  takes  great exception to several 
      other,  ancillary  documents, released by MSF in April, such as a CIA 
      memo  and  a  briefing  paper on "Project Aquarius." They report that 
      MSF  began de-emphasizing these documents over the course of the sum-
      mer,  especially  after  CAUS  confronted William Moore with the evi-
      dence for their fraudulence.
      
      
      But  the  most significant portion of the CAUS newsletter (this issue 
      of  which  is devoted entirely to MJ-12) deals in a discussion of who 
      may  be behind the concoction. ParaNet readers may remember that in a 
      recent  issue  of  Saucer  Smear, Supreme Commander James Moseley an-
      nounced  that he had a "name" that he was investigating in connection 
      with  the Majestic-12 controversy, and that he would release it soon. 
      That  name,  supplied to him by ParaNet, was Col. Richard Doty, Spec-
      ial  Agent,  Air  Force Office of Special Investigations. CAUS editor 
      Greenwood agrees with Moseley's, and our, suspicions. In brief:
      
      
      -  TV  producer  Linda  Howe,  best known for her landmark expose' on 
      cattle  mutilation,  STRANGE  HARVEST,  was contacted by a government 
      source  in  1984 to "aid in producing a documentary, essentially pro-
      viding  an  answer  to UFOs." The government source was Richard Doty. 
      The documentary was never completed.
      
      -   Dr.   Paul   Bennewitz,   mentioned   in   the  Air  Force  telex 
      (AQUARIUS.DOC)  in  connection  with  his having photographed objects 
      over  Kirtland  Air  Force  Base,  used  the phrase "Extraterrestrial 
      Biological  Entities"  in an interview with a UFO researcher in early 
      1986.  "The  phrase  is  identical to the MJ-12 Briefing Paper's des-
      cription  of aliens and came a full year before the public release of 
      the  MSF papers." Bennewitz was investigated by Doty, and the two are 
      known to have maintained contact.
      
      -  Peter Gersten, founder and director of CAUS, reports having inter-
      viewed  a  military  intelligence source in 1983, during which he was 
      informed  of a wide range of bizarre UFO material, including confirm-
      ation of the Roswell Incident. That source was Richard Doty.
      (Quotes above are from JUST CAUSE).
      
COMMENTARY:
      JUST  CAUSE  is  to be commended for their diligence, their patience, 
and  their  intellectual  honesty. Greenwood and Publisher Larry Fawcett go 
to  great  pains  to  chastise  the  MSF team for their credulity and their 
pseudo-scientific  approach.  "What  has  happened  to critical thinking on 
this  affair?  ...  A  claim  must  be solidly supported by an interlocking 
network  of  facts leading to a logical conclusion. In this case -- we have 
a  mess!"  They are quite right when they proclaim that MJ-12 appears to be 
a  "giant  black  eye  on  the face of Ufology," and we certainly hope that 
when  the  affair  is  recalled by future historians, it will be remembered 
that  it was a pro-UFO group, CAUS, that provided the most damning evidence 
of fraud.
      CAUS  is  also  to  be commended for not entertaining the notion that 
Moore  faked  the  documents,  a  wild  and idiotic speculation being given 
serious  play  by  debunker  Philip Klass. However, it is interesting that, 
while  pointing  to Richard Doty, CAUS does not delve into possible motiva-
tions.
      We'd  like  to be able to tell you now that the affair is over. Alas, 
there  is  more,  much  more to come. In fact, we may be only at the end of 
chapter one.
      Prior  to  the  release of JUST CAUSE, I spoke with a man at Kirtland 
Air  Force Base who claimed to be Richard Doty -- M/Sgt Richard Doty, care-
taker  of  the  Officer's  Club.  Sgt.  Doty assured me that he was not THE 
Richard  Doty,  and  that they were not related; that COLONEL Doty had been 
reassigned  somewhere  in  Europe;  and  that  for  the six months that he, 
SERGEANT  Doty,  had  been at Kirtland, he had been harangued by all manner 
of  journalists,  researchers,  and the merely curious. (It was he who con-
firmed  for  us  that 60 Minutes has a UFO story in the can). Peter Gersten 
of  CAUS  insists  that  the  Colonel and the Sergeant are one and the same 
("he's  been  pulling  that  bullshit for months"); I maintain that that is 
impossible.  He  may  be able to pull off a masquerade on US, but how would 
he  maintain  the charade on his fellow base mates? Why would he not change 
his  name  instead  of  his rank? I do, however, agree that it is EXTREMELY 
strange;  what,  after  all,  are  the  chances of two people with the name 
Richard  Doty even being in the same branch of the service, let alone being 
assigned to the same AFB? 
      And  there  is  more. Smear publisher James Moseley has just returned 
from  Los  Angeles,  where he became the first person outside the immediate 
MJ-12  group  to  view the remaining evidence that is constantly alluded to 
by  MSF.  Among  that evidence are audio and videotapes of SEVERAL individ-
uals,  whom  Moore  claims are authentic military intelligence types, spil-
ling  the  beans  on  the entire government UFO program. What little detail 
Moseley  gave  us,  we  have  been  asked  to  keep under our hat, however, 
Moseley  himself,  best  described  as  the most skeptical of believers, is 
impressed  with MSF's sincerity, and has come quite close to doing an about 
face  on  his  original  dismissal of the entire affair. He seems convinced 
that THIS IS STILL A MAJOR STORY.
      And I don't blame him.
      From  the  beginning  of this affair, the possibility of a government 
disinformation  campaign has been furtively hinted at, but mostly dismissed 
as  senseless  and paranoiac. Why, after all, should the government attract 
attention  TOWARD  UFOs?  What  proof  of a government cover-up did we have 
before  MJ-12?  Aside  from the Roswell Incident, which is pretty much dead 
in  the water, none. One would have thought that the government's best move 
would  be  utter silence, in the hopes that Ufologists would give up and go 
home.  A campaign designed to sensationalize, then discredit, a set of doc-
uments could only be counter-productive.
      
      But  imagine  if  you will, just for a second, that (shudder) (pause) 
MJ-12  is  real. Imagine that there really is a high-level panel engaged in 
secretly  studying  the  UFO problem at the behest of the President. It may 
not  actually  be  called MJ-12. But it is Top Secret. You are assigned the 
task  of  protecting  it from exposure. You become aware that several indi-
viduals  who  have  knowledge of its existence are unstable security risks, 
and  may in fact be talking to news media, or UFO journalists, or whatever. 
You  decide  to  set  up  a hoax "exposure" of a similar, fictitious group, 
with  the  idea  of discrediting it afterwards - the so-called "false flag" 
ploy.
      The  effects  of  such a maneuver are obvious. After the dust is set-
tled  and  the  responsible  news  media  and UFO community are pretty much 
satisfied  that  its  a hoax, anyone coming forward at this point to expose 
the  real  panel  will  be summarily ignored. No one, especially those with 
the resources to dig further, will pay the slightest attention.
      If  this  sounds  like  just so much paranoia, you're probably right. 
But  consider  what  would  happen today, if someone came forward and said, 
"But  wait! There really IS such a group!" After reading of CAUS's expose', 
would you believe them?
      The  above  scenario  is,  admittedly,  highly  speculative, and most 
likely  not  the  case. But the question of what has motivated this elabor-
ate,  expensive  song-and-dance  lingers. Much has been lost. What has been 
gained?
      --Jim Speiser
--- msgedsq 2.0.5
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