SPECIAL REPORT

The New Bogus Majestic-12 Documents

The new crashed-saucer documents, like their 1987 predecessors, are riddled with flaws.

PHILIP J. KLASS

C C "1L ajestic Twelve"—better known as "MJ- J \ /I 12"—first achieved international fame in jL T A the world of in mid-1987. It was then that UFOlogist William L. Moore and two associates made public three (purportedly) "Top Secret" documents which indicated that President Harry Truman had created a super-secret MJ-12 group forty years earlier to deal with extraterrestrial (ET) visitors. Truman's (alleged) action was prompted by an alleged crashed-ET craft that had been covertly recovered near Roswell in mid-1947. The Roswell crashed-saucer claim had been the center- piece of a book published seven years earlier (1980) which Moore had coauthored with Charles Berlitz. (Berlitz

4 4 May/June 2000 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER previously authored a book describing the "mysterious the date diat Cutler allegedly wrote the memo, he was out of dangers" of the .) die country. Moore claimed that he and Shandera had found Recently, a large batch of additional "Top Secret Majestic die Cutler memo in an unlikely location when diey visited the Documents" have emerged, provided by another UFOlogist National Archives. The memo, which had been double-folded, named Tim Cooper, who claims he obtained them from sev- could easily have been carried into the Archives in Moore's or eral covert sources. Their authenticity has been endorsed by Shandera's coat pocket. Less than two years before Moore Robert Wood, a respected, retired McDonnell Douglas scien- made public the initial MJ-12 papers—on April 16, 1983—he tist and his son Ryan. (Wood is a member of the nine-person had confided to dien-close friend and UFOlogist Brad Sparks Executive Council of Peter Sturrock's Society for Scientific that he was contemplating creating and releasing some Exploration.) Based on die Woods' assessment, wealthy Silicon Top Secret documents—as first revealed in die March 1997 Valley software expert Joe Firmage, who recently revealed his conviction diat some UFOs are extraterrestrial visitors, also The new Cooper documents, like their 1987 endorsed Cooper's documents in mid- 1999. predecessors, are so riddled with flaws that they However, on November 25 the could never fool Soviet or Chinese intelligence International Space Sciences Organization (ISSO), which Firmage recently created to experts. Even some long-time pro-UFOIogists have pursue his UFO interests, issued a state- denounced them as obvious counterfeits. ment diat "ongoing research indicates diat many, possibly all, the so-called MJ-12 UFO documents were officially fabricated as instruments of U.S. covert issue of my Skeptics UFO Newsletter. Moore explained to psychological warfare. . ." (emphasis added). This is ridiculous! Sparks that he hoped such bogus documents would encourage The new Cooper documents, like their 1987 predecessors, are former military and intelligence officials who knew about the so riddled widi flaws diat tJiey could never fool Soviet or government's (alleged) UFO coverup to break their oadis of Chinese intelligence experts. Even some long-time pro- . Sparks strongly recommended against the idea. UFOIogists have denounced them as obvious counterfeits. It was not until nearly seven years after release of die origi- One of the original MJ-12 documents released by Moore nal MJ-12 documents that a new "MJ-12 document" surfaced and his two partners (UFO lecturer Stanton Friedman and TV on March 14, 1994. On that date, Don Berliner, a long-time producer Jaime Shandera) purported to be a memo from pro-UFOlogist, received in the mail an undeveloped roll of 35 President Truman to Defense Secretary James Forrestal, dated mm film from an anonymous source. When the film was September 24, 1947, which authorized the creation of the MJ- processed, Berliner found photos of what purported to be 12 group. My investigation revealed that the Truman signature copies of pages from a "Top Secret/MAJIC/Eyes Only" special was a pasted-on photocopy of a genuine signature—including operations manual (SOM 1-01) intended to inform military accidental scratch marks—from a memo that Truman wrote to crews how to recover crashed saucers and their ET crews. Vannevar Bush on October 1, 1947 (see "New evidence of SOM 1-01, purportedly printed in April 1954, contains many MJ-12 hoax," SI 14[2], Winter 1990). flaws. For example, it stated diat crashed ET craft should be A second MJ-12 document released by Moore et al. pur- sent to " S-4" in Nevada. But that portion of Nellis Air ported to be a November 18, 1952, briefing for President-elect Force Base was not given the name "Area 51" until several Eisenhower, prepared by Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoetter, years after SOM 1-01 allegedly was printed. who had been director of the CIA and, purportedly, was now As a result of numerous flaws in SOM 1-01, a statement head of MJ-12. There were numerous flaws in die "Eisenhower denouncing it as counterfeit was released on March 14, 1999. Briefing Document" (EBD), the most obvious being its refer- It was signed by Berliner and several other prominent pro- ence to the (bogus) Truman memo of September 24, 1947. UFOIogists. By this time, a new batch of more dian a dozen Further, the EBD repeatedly used a very unusual date-for- Majestic documents obtained from Tim Cooper had recently mat—a hybrid combination of civil and military formats with been made public by Robert Wood and his son Ryan at a UFO a superfluous comma, i.e., 18 November, 1952. This unusual conference in Connecticut. They had strongly endorsed the hybrid date-format was one repeatedly used by William L. authenticity of the documents, although Wood admitted diat Moore in his personal letters—until I pointed out this "curi- there were flaws in diem. But he claimed that these anomalies ous coincidence" in my first article debunking die original MJ- "tend to indicate authenticity.... [Document] hoaxers gener- 12 papers (see SI 12[2], Winter 1987-1988). The third of the ally try to make sure diey are perfect." MJ-12 documents made public by Moore et al. in mid-1987 purported to be a brief memo, dated July 14, 1954, from Washington-based aerospace journalist Philip J. Klass is author of Robert Cutler to USAF Chief of Staff General Twining numerous books critically evaluating UFO claims, chairman of informing him of change of date to brief die President on die CSICOP's UFO Subcommittee, and editor of Skeptics UFO "MJ-12 Special Studies Project." Investigation revealed that on Newsletter.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER May/June 2000 45 previously authored a book describing the "mysterious the date diat Cutler allegedly wrote the memo, he was out of dangers" of the Bermuda Triangle.) die country. Moore claimed that he and Shandera had found Recently, a large batch of additional "Top Secret Majestic die Cutler memo in an unlikely location when diey visited the Documents" have emerged, provided by another UFOlogist National Archives. The memo, which had been double-folded, named Tim Cooper, who claims he obtained them from sev- could easily have been carried into the Archives in Moore's or eral covert sources. Their authenticity has been endorsed by Shandera's coat pocket. Less than two years before Moore Robert Wood, a respected, retired McDonnell Douglas scien- made public the initial MJ-12 papers—on April 16, 1983—he tist and his son Ryan. (Wood is a member of the nine-person had confided to dien-close friend and UFOlogist Brad Sparks Executive Council of Peter Sturrock's Society for Scientific that he was contemplating creating and releasing some hoax Exploration.) Based on die Woods' assessment, wealthy Silicon Top Secret documents—as first revealed in die March 1997 Valley software expert Joe Firmage, who recently revealed his conviction diat some UFOs are extraterrestrial visitors, also The new Cooper documents, like their 1987 endorsed Cooper's documents in mid- 1999. predecessors, are so riddled with flaws that they However, on November 25 the could never fool Soviet or Chinese intelligence International Space Sciences Organization (ISSO), which Firmage recently created to experts. Even some long-time pro-UFOIogists have pursue his UFO interests, issued a state- denounced them as obvious counterfeits. ment diat "ongoing research indicates diat many, possibly all, the so-called MJ-12 UFO documents were officially fabricated as instruments of U.S. covert issue of my Skeptics UFO Newsletter. Moore explained to psychological warfare. . ." (emphasis added). This is ridiculous! Sparks that he hoped such bogus documents would encourage The new Cooper documents, like their 1987 predecessors, are former military and intelligence officials who knew about the so riddled widi flaws diat tJiey could never fool Soviet or government's (alleged) UFO coverup to break their oadis of Chinese intelligence experts. Even some long-time pro- secrecy. Sparks strongly recommended against the idea. UFOIogists have denounced them as obvious counterfeits. It was not until nearly seven years after release of die origi- One of the original MJ-12 documents released by Moore nal MJ-12 documents that a new "MJ-12 document" surfaced and his two partners (UFO lecturer Stanton Friedman and TV on March 14, 1994. On that date, Don Berliner, a long-time producer Jaime Shandera) purported to be a memo from pro-UFOlogist, received in the mail an undeveloped roll of 35 President Truman to Defense Secretary James Forrestal, dated mm film from an anonymous source. When the film was September 24, 1947, which authorized the creation of the MJ- processed, Berliner found photos of what purported to be 12 group. My investigation revealed that the Truman signature copies of pages from a "Top Secret/MAJIC/Eyes Only" special was a pasted-on photocopy of a genuine signature—including operations manual (SOM 1-01) intended to inform military accidental scratch marks—from a memo that Truman wrote to crews how to recover crashed saucers and their ET crews. Vannevar Bush on October 1, 1947 (see "New evidence of SOM 1-01, purportedly printed in April 1954, contains many MJ-12 hoax," SI 14[2], Winter 1990). flaws. For example, it stated diat crashed ET craft should be A second MJ-12 document released by Moore et al. pur- sent to "Area 51 S-4" in Nevada. But that portion of Nellis Air ported to be a November 18, 1952, briefing for President-elect Force Base was not given the name "Area 51" until several Eisenhower, prepared by Rear Admiral R.H. Hillenkoetter, years after SOM 1-01 allegedly was printed. who had been director of the CIA and, purportedly, was now As a result of numerous flaws in SOM 1-01, a statement head of MJ-12. There were numerous flaws in die "Eisenhower denouncing it as counterfeit was released on March 14, 1999. Briefing Document" (EBD), the most obvious being its refer- It was signed by Berliner and several other prominent pro- ence to the (bogus) Truman memo of September 24, 1947. UFOIogists. By this time, a new batch of more dian a dozen Further, the EBD repeatedly used a very unusual date-for- Majestic documents obtained from Tim Cooper had recently mat—a hybrid combination of civil and military formats with been made public by Robert Wood and his son Ryan at a UFO a superfluous comma, i.e., 18 November, 1952. This unusual conference in Connecticut. They had strongly endorsed the hybrid date-format was one repeatedly used by William L. authenticity of the documents, although Wood admitted diat Moore in his personal letters—until I pointed out this "curi- there were flaws in diem. But he claimed that these anomalies ous coincidence" in my first article debunking die original MJ- "tend to indicate authenticity.... [Document] hoaxers gener- 12 papers (see SI 12[2], Winter 1987-1988). The third of the ally try to make sure diey are perfect." MJ-12 documents made public by Moore et al. in mid-1987 purported to be a brief memo, dated July 14, 1954, from Washington-based aerospace journalist Philip J. Klass is author of Robert Cutler to USAF Chief of Staff General Twining numerous books critically evaluating UFO claims, chairman of informing him of change of date to brief die President on die CSICOP's UFO Subcommittee, and editor of Skeptics UFO "MJ-12 Special Studies Project." Investigation revealed that on Newsletter.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER May/June 2000 45 Cooper's letters of October 4 and 7. 1991 (enlarged slightly)

Timothy Good Mr, Timothy G. e#0. pari, 8.3) 20 Morley Cou 20 Morley Cou: 78 The Avenue 78 The Avenue in 19U8. 8th Air Force

From Cooper's "MJ-12 Annual Report" (enlarged slightly)

7 January 1*U8 *& MvfSQl lfhl/k& crlaU I» 1855 i£ Juna X5U5 13 January Uk& Lang. 106-2&-21 least( 8,?73) itama *•• **P ***• *•

Figure 1. "Elevated 8" in Cooper's letters and in one of his 'MJ-12 documents."

No mention was made by Wood that his long-time good Newsletter, a copy of which was provided to Wood. His friend, UFO lecturer Friedman—who remains one of the response of December 13 (via e-mail) was: "The question is staunchest supporters of the original MJ-12 documents—had whedier that ["elcvated-8"] is a characteristic of that typewriter earlier investigated several of Cooper's documents and con- design as distinguished from any particular machine serial cluded that at least one was counterfeit. Friedman had reported number. We need other examples from the same typewriter his findings and suspicions about other Cooper documents in design and I would hope to find some." his book Top SECRET/MAJIC, p u b l i s h e d three years earlier. In other words. Wood suggests diat diis mechanical flaw British UFOIogist , who in 1987 had was a possible uncorrected characteristic of all of die typewrit- strongly endorsed the authenticity of the original MJ-12 doc- ers produced by this manufacturer for at least several decades. uments in his best-selling pro-UFO book Above Top Secret, has Nothing further has been heard from Wood on this key issue more recently characterized them as bogus, largely on the basis since mid-December 1999. of the phony signature on the Truman memo of September Meanwhile, Tim Cooper posted a lengthy treatise on the 24, 1947. But in the early 1990s, prior to Good's disavowal of Internet on December 30, offering his assessment of his "new the original MJ-12 papers, he began to receive some of the Majestic documents." Highlights of Cooper's views are "new" Majestic documents from Cooper. quoted below: Good's suspicions about the new Cooper documents were The question of whether they [Cooper's documents] arc gen- aroused by some factual anomalies in their content. More uine, authentic or real is not the issue here. The important important. Good noted that mechanical flaws in the type- point ... is the information contained in the documents writer Cooper had used to write two letters on October 4 and themselves. . . . In my own humble opinion, the Majestic doc- October 7, 1991, resembled those of the typewriter used for uments are basically reliable as far as content is concerned with the exception of the questionable hypothesis that there are other one of his Majestic documents, allegedly typed in 1952. At my intelligent, thinking, machine building cultures visiting planet request, Good provided me widi copies of Cooper's two letters earth on a regular, day to day basis [emphasis added]. for analysis. Cooper's two 1991 letters to Good not only had the same Yet the opening page of the Web site that the Woods have typeface as the (purported) 1952 Top Secret MJ-12 Annual created to promote MJ-12 states: "The Majestic Documents: Report, but more importantly the upper-case (capital) G and Evidence That We Are Not Alone. Curious about die docu- N were slightly elevated relative to die adjacent lower-case let- mentary record of military and government participation widi ters. However, an experienced questioned document examiner UFOs, wreckage retrieval, and extraterrestrials? This site is all informed me that it was conceivable, though unlikely, that about id The documents, die forensics, die military and intelli- bodi Cooper and die 1952 document typist might have failed gence history, and stunning validating evidence. Join us on a to depress the "shift key" to its lowest possible position when journey into die beyond Top Secret world diat a government typing G and A'. has been hiding since 1941." (One of Cooper's documents However, both Cooper's letters and the 1952 document also claims a crashed saucer was recovered in die spring of 1941 near have an "elevated 8"—which does not require the use of the type- Cape Girardeau, Missouri, six years before die alleged Roswell writer's shift-key (see figure 1). This curious coincidence was Incident. If true, die Eisenhower Briefing Document com- reported in die November 1999 issue of Skeptics UFO pletely forgot to mention this historic event.) •

4 6 May/June 2000 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER