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The Fund for CIA Research, or Who's Disinforming Who?

The Fund for CIA Research?
or
Who's Disinforming Whom?

from MindControlForums Website
 

One of the nation's leading sponsors of UFO research and investigations, the Fund for UFO Research, has had a long-standing secret relationship with the CIA and the U.S. Intelligence community. Dr. Bruce Maccabee, an optics and laser specialist with the Naval Surface Weapons Laboratory near Washington, DC, one of the Fund's founders and members of the group's Executive Committee, has been secretly meeting with CIA officials since 1979, briefing them about various UFO matters and investigators.

In a recent interview, Maccabee confirmed that he has given a number of briefings on UFOs at CIA Headquarters at Langley, Virginia, the most recent of which was on Friday, May 28, 1993, just before the Memorial Day weekend. While the latest presentation was primarily about "residual magnetic effects" alledgedly discovered after an incident near Gulf Breeze, Florida, other meetings with the CIA have involved such matters as "MJ-12," the Roswell incident, purported UFO photos and films, physiological effects on UFO witnesses, psychic phenomena and UFO researchers.

Maccabee described one meeting at a CIA conference room that he said was "standing room only," in which he briefed CIA personnel on the supposed super- secret "MJ-12" group detailed in "documents" revealed by William L. "Bill" Moore, a person who subsequently claimed to be a government disinformation agent. At the same time and for undisclosed reasons, Maccabee briefed the CIA men on the CIA's own UFO files released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Following the "MJ-12" conference, Maccabee was told by Ron Pandolfi, a CIA official who is Maccabee's main contact at the agency, that he had "created a lot of spies" within the CIA. It seems that in the aftermath of the session CIA officers began snooping on each other and combing each other's files in some sort of bizarre search for evidence of the fabled UFO control group, sparked by Maccabee's talk. Maccabee even persuaded Pandolfi to have the CIA's librarian for "MJ-12" references in the Roscoe HillenKoetter (an early CIA director) files. The results were negative, reportedly.

Maccabee first approached the CIA in early 1979 after traveling to New Zealand to investigate the filming of an alledged "UFO" from a plane by a television crew. Although most people who viewed the film were unimpressed by the jumpy blob of nocturnal light, Maccabee for unclear reasons, decided the film represented some sort of probative evidence of UFOs and set out to bring it to the attention of CIA officials. He then put out feelers through his contacts with companies performing tasks for the CIA, and later a meeting was set up at CIA Headquarters, during which he screened the film and summarized his analysis of it.

A short time later, Maccabee revealed details of his meeting to W. Todd Zechel, founder of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) and UFO researcher specializing in government coverup. Zechel had initiated a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the CIA in September 1977 in conjunction with Peter Gersten, a New York attorney, and Ground Saucer Watch, a Phoenix-based UFO group for which Zechel was Director of Research. In December 1978 the suit resulted in the CIA releasing more than a thousand documents it had claimed didn't exist prior to the suit.

In recorded conversations with Zechel, Maccabee disclosed that a CIA official had taken him aside after the New Zealand UFO film briefing and revealed that he was the custodian of the CIA's UFO files. These files, the official said, consisted of some 15,000 UFO-related documents, of which, he claimed, only "two or three thousand were really interesting," the remainder being mostly mundane Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) reports and items of lesser interest. All of these documents had been turned over to the CIA's Freedom of Information Staff, the official told Maccabee, in response to the FOIA suit Zechel had filed.

It should be noted, at this point, that the CIA had been ordered to search all of its files for UFO-related documents and make a full accounting of them. This Stipulation and Order was in accordance with an agreement Zechel and Gersten had worked out with the CIA's attorney and a U.S. Attorney at a Status Call hearing on the suit on July 7, 1978. It was then that Zechel had, in a rather forceful manner, threatened to have CIA officials criminally prosecuted for issuing false replies to FOIA requests on UFOs. Faced with this, the CIA had backed down and agreed to cooperate. However, subsequently the CIA only accounted for 1,000 documents and claimed to be withholding a mere 57.

What Maccabee was told in confidence by the CIA's UFO files custodian dove- tailed exactly with statements made by CIA representatives during the course of the suit, during which attorney Gersten was led to believe in excess of 10,000 documents would be made available. There was also a letter to Zechel from the CIA's FOIA staff asking him to suspend action on a particular request, stating, "1,000 pages of additional UFO related documents have just been located" and were being processed.

It was also clear from analyzing the documents released on December 15, 1978, that the CIA was continuing to be deceptive. Brad Sparks, a researcher with CAUS, found references in the released material to more than 200 other UFO- related documents which the CIA had failed to acknowledge. Moreover, it was evident the CIA had carefully selected the documents it released, even with heavy censorship. The CIA only accounted for documents related to matters Zechel and Sparks had uncovered during their investigation of CIA involvement, and excluded many others such as conclusions of its emergency studies of UFOs in 1952, 1957, 1965, 1967, and others. These studies were carried out in secret, utilizing Domestic Contact Service (a.k.a. Domestic Collection Division) agents, during a number of UFO flaps and in conjunction with the Condon Committee study (1966-68).
 

A Missed Opportunity

In March 1979, after the CIA filed deceptive affidavits with the court about its purported search of files, Gersten set out to file an Order to Show Cause Why the CIA Should Not Be Held in Contempt of Court. The Show Cause order asked the court to penalize the CIA for failing to comply with the Stipulation and Order agreed to in 1978.

It was during the construction of the Show Cause motion that Maccabee made his remarkable revelations to Zechel, who immediately asked if he could speak with the CIA officer. Shortly, Maccabee informed Zechel that the CIA man refused the request. Maccabee also declined to identify the CIA official, other than to say he was formerly a medical doctor with the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence who had become the head of a CIA subgroup that among other things conducted research concerning psychic phenomena.

Zechel hurriedly informed Gersten of Maccabee's disclosures, but attempts to enlist Maccabee's cooperation with the suit were met with refusal and obfuscation, including an attempt by Maccabee to mislead Brad Sparks by telling him the briefing did not take place at CIA headquarters, and he claimed to be unsure if the men he met with were CIA employees. This clever manipulation of the facts threw Sparks off the trail and made Zechel's information about the meeting appear to be suspect.

It was clear from Maccabee's other statements to Zechel that Maccabee intended to cooperate with the CIA on a continuing basis and that he hoped to become its sort of UFO-man-on-call, perhaps being dispatched around the world to investigate UFO sightings--sort of the James Bond of UFO encounters. Zechel found this to be a rather silly fantasy in light of the fact he had found the CIA had been conducting secret studies of UFOs since 1952, and perhaps even before that, and had utilized high-tech cameras, sensing devices and a nationwide field staff of agents who became covert operatives in 1973.

In any case, no thanks to Maccabee the Order to Show Cause was filed one day late and thrown out of court when the U.S. District Court judge upheld the CIA's Out of Time motion. The CIA had been 88 days late with its filing, surpassing a 60 day extension by 28 days. But that mattered not to Judge John Pratt, whose rulings had been reversed five times in the past by higher courts for decisions unfairly favorable to the CIA.

In the years since, Maccabee and Zechel had several phone conversations revolving around Macabee's relationship with the CIA. At one point, Zechel asked him, directly, if he was working for the CIA. "You might say that," Maccabee replied. In April 1990, however, Maccabee began to back-pedal on what he'd been told by the CIA's UFO files custodian in 1979. Suddenly he contended the official had said "there might be as many as 15,000 UFO-related documents" scattered throughout headquarters. In this version, The CIA man had merely been speculating about the totality of the CIA's collection, judging by the one or two thousand he had control over.

The 1990 interview with Maccabee was witnessed by UFO lecturer Robert Hastings as it played over a speaker phone in Zechel's office. Several years earlier, Hastings had called Maccabee about another matter and in passing asked him about reports of his contacts with the CIA, the 1979 briefing. Maccabee feigned puzzlement and denied the whole thing.

In the most recent interview, Maccabee continued to cling to his contention that the CIA official had been guessing about the 15,000 number. When it was pointed out to him this was illogical in light of the fact the acknowledged custodian would have no reason to suppose another 13,000 documents were located in other files, Maccabee had no response other than to assert it seemed logical to him.


In point of fact, the custodian of the UFO files had merely inherited them as the result of being "Keeper of the Wierd," as Maccabee described it. There were general files on UFOs from several CIA offices, including Scientific Intelligence, thereby presenting no basis to suppose there were large numbers of additional documents elsewhere or for making an educated guess as to their total. In other words, why would a person who believed he was custodian, that 13,000 other UFO documents were being stored in other places somewhere in the CIA?

The answer seems clear: Maccabee treasures his secret relationship with the CIA more dearly than he feels any need to be forthright about matters vitally important to objective researchers.

Although for years Maccabee has closely guarded the custodian's identity, in the most recent interview he confirmed the official's name is Christopher C. "Kit" Green, more recently the chief of the Biomedical Sciences Department at General Motors. Dr. Green attained a Ph.D. in Neurophysiology in 1969 and in 1976 received his M.D., Doctor of Medicine, degree. Green was awarded the CIA's National Intelligence Medal for his work on a "classified project" from 1979 to 1983, precisely the years in which Maccabee was meeting with him at CIA headquarters. Green uses somewhat of a cover story to describe his CIA work, calling himself a "Scientific Advisor on the Advisory Board to the Directorate of Intelligence, CIA."

According to Maccabee, Green sought out Bill Moore in 1988 or 1989, shortly after Moore had his 15 minutes of fame as a technical consultant for "UFO Cover-Up? Live!," the disastrous two-hour TV special that featured back-lit ravings by "Falcon" Doty and "Condor" Collins. Subsequently, Green became BLUEJAY in Moore's fabled aviary, although it's unclear if Green realized he'd become a member of the flock. But then birds of a feather do flock together, don't they?

According to Maccabee's account, "BLUEJAY" Green volunteered to carry out special missions for Moore, the confessed disinformationist. One of these assignments involved Green trying to make contact with Robert Gates, the Director of Central Intelligence under President George Bush. It appears Moore told Green that Gates held some lofty position in the current configuration of the mythical "MJ-12," and Green was supposed to approach gates by passing some sort of code word or phrase, a scenario right out of an old pulp spy novel. Maccabee, with some disgust, says Green "bungled" the code word and the rendevous fell through.

Remarkably, Maccabee seems not to understand how foolish all this looks to people who have intensly studied the government's handling of UFOs over the years, nor does he seem to question the validity of Moore's activities, long after Moore publically confessed to being a liar and betrayer of fellow ufologists, a la his contention in 1989 that he was a "controlled informant" at the annual MUFON symposium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
 

Dr. Maccabee, Bill Moore & MJ-12

At this point we are forced to review the whole sordid history surrounding Bill Moore, his associate Rick Doty and his highly dubious claim to have been ordered to spy on Paul Bennewitz by members of unnamed agencies of the United States Government. This review is necessary in order to appreciate the lack of judgement that Dr. Maccabee (and therefore FUFOR) has demonstrated in his continuing support for and association with Bill Moore and more importantly Bill Moore's best known creation--the MJ-12 hoax.

Paul Bennewitz is a man with a long history of mental illness who, when lucid, ran a company called Thunder Scientific Corp., a manufacturer of temperature and humidity measuring devices, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Bennewitz claimed to have observed and filmed alien spacecraft activity over restricted areas of Kirtland, AFB and tried to interest Air Force officials in his sightings. Robert Hastings, a resident of the same city, spent some time with Bennewitz on two occasions after stories of Bennewitz's UFO encounters began to surface. Contrary to Moore's claims that Bennewitz had seen and filmed super- secret UFO-like craft over the Manzano Weapons Storage Area and the Coyote Canyon Test Site, Hastings found the films to be hoaxes so crude and poorly done as to be laughable. It was quite obvious, Hastings says, that one film was of several birds in flight (metaphorically appropriate, wouldn't you say?). During the screening, Bennewitz claimed the birds' flapping wings were alien spacecraft "force fields" moving up and down. Another film "looked like Bennewitz had thrown it on the floor and walked on it," Hastings added. The film was nothing more than a series of smudges, hair and other debris. A third film purportedly of a "green fireball" phenomenon as reported in one of Doty's bogus documents was found by Hastings to be somewhat drawn on the underside of the 8 mm film strip with a green magic marker.

Hastings, a compassionate and fair-minded person, quickly realized Bennewitz was a mentally disturbed man suffering from paranoid delusions revolving aound alien beings. At one point, Bennewitz showed Hastings print-outs of complete garble which he claimed were messages from the "aliens." Bennewitz interpreted the garble for Hastings, explaining that the aliens had tracked him from his hotel to Bennewitz's home, that they liked him and wanted to rendevous with him later that evening at a remote site. Hastings said thanks but no thanks. A long time friend of Bennewitz's has confirmed that Bennewitz has been repeatedly hospitalized by his family and treated for mental illness over the past decade, long before Moore had reportedly began working his alledged disinformational magic on Bennewitz.

For a better impression of Bennewitz's mental state, check out this description taken from an advertising flyer for Christa Tilton's 'The Bennewitz Papers, 'a book based upon his ramblings:

"Bennewitz reported [that] horrid people began following him, breaking into his home to install wire taps, Air Force men showing up at his doorstep at all hours..he was being drugged and was convinced aliens were coming into his home and sticking him with needles. He became a frightened man. He also felt like the government was possibly behind some of the happennings."

There was probably thousands of people all over the country suffering from the same sort of paranoid delusions as Paul Bennewitz. What set Bennewitz apart was that he came into contact with an AFOSI agent named Sgt. Richard Doty.

"Falcon" Doty first surfaced during an attempt to sell a hoaxed incident about a pitched battle with aliens at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, where Doty had been stationed. Bob Pratt, armed with a legitimate looking report about the reported case that had been concocted and leaked to Doty, conducted a lengthy investigation for the 'National Enquirer' but failed to find even a shred of supporting evidence. Later, Doty began sending phony letters to APRO, trying to bait them in similar fashion. Then, while stationed at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, Doty came into contact with Bennewitz as a result of Bennewitz's attempts to get Air Force officials to listen to his rantings about alien encounters.

While other Kirtland officials had politely declined to meet with Bennewitz, Doty apparently saw an opportunity to make hay with Bennewitz's bales. Doty even invited Jerry Miller, a former investigator with the Air Force's 4602nd Sq., the group that did legwork for Project Blue Book, to a meeting with Bennewitz. Miller came away convinced Bennewitz was nothing more than a mentally disturbed person, a "nut case," and advised Doty that he was wasting his time.

But devious Doty was not discouraged. He concocted reports incoporating some of Bennewitz's stories, adding his own embellishments, then sought out Bill Moore, whom he heard speaking about UFOs on a local radio station. The pair soon found a great deal in common: Doty was determined to make big money by concocting phony UFO stories and Moore was determined to get rich by exploiting the subject. In fact, Moore told Todd Zechel in early 1980 that "I'll bet you've heard that you can't make money off UFOs? Well, I proved that wrong!" Bruce Maccabee was present when Moore made this brag, but apparently did not see what dangers it foretold.

Moore showed some of Doty's reports during a documentary on UFOs produced by Ron Lakis, and later Barry Greenwood and Larry Fawcett of CAUS captured one of them on video tape freeze-frame, then submitted FOIA requests for the documents. Doty responded to the request by forwarding several "reports," which were dutifully reprinted in 'Clear Intent' , Greenwood and Fawcett's book. This process legitimized the "documents" and convinced even skeptical UFO advocates that Bennewitz had stumbled onto something important.

Shortly thereafter, members of CAUS took the bait Doty had dangled. Peter Gersten CAUS's attorney, made contact with Doty through Bill Moore and a meeting was arranged. There, Doty alluded to possessing other "hot" information on UFOs and subsequently offered to sell Gersten "documents," stating he needed money because his wife had recently divorced him and he owed legal fees. Gersten wisely declined the offer, fearing he was either being set up for criminal prosecution or that Doty was attempting a swindle.

Moore, the man who had resurrected the Roswell incident (a case for which the best explanation at that point seemed to be some sort of top secret constant altitude balloon project), began working with Doty on developing documents to support crashed saucer recoveries, knowing these would have a greater financial value than Bennewitz's "sightings." Documentary filmmaker Linda Howe was invited to Kirtland to meet with Doty, during which she was shown a purported "Presidential Briefing Paper" on crashed saucers that described four such incidents. Doty also regaled Howe with tales about captured aliens known as EBEs (Extraterrestrial Biological Entities), a term invented by Paul Bennewitz, the same person responsible for "greys," a 'classification' for little E.T.- type aliens now in common use.

Doty continued to string Howe along for several months, telling her she'd been selected by a super-secret control group known as "MJ-12" to make startling disclosures to the public about alien beings, promising to deliver lengthy film footage of downed saucers and even to introduce her to a live alien. Howe ate it up with a spoon, proving once again, that you can fool some people all of the time.

Moore and Doty came up with a clever scheme to disguise the fact they were in cahoots. Shortly after Howe's Kirtland visit, Doty phoned Howe and charged, "Why did you tell Bill Moore that you and I had slept together?" Up to this point, Howe had never in her life spoken with Moore, but after Doty's unsettling accusations she tracked him down and called him to find out why he had told Doty a lie about her. Moore, of course, denied the charge, but 'confessed' he was also working with "MJ-12" and suggested they get together to compare notes.

In this manner, Moore was able to reinforce Doty's bogus disclosures without appearing to be a co-conspirator. It was a method he used throughout the entire scam: by bringing in credulous outsiders such as Howe and Lee Graham and circulating the bogus material among them or just flashing it on them, he was able to obfuscate the origin of the "documents" and make it seem as though others were involved with the "leaks." In reality, the "Majestic-12" was "Swindlers-2," Doty and Moore.

For example, Moore gave a copy of the "briefing paper" Doty had shown to Howe to Capt. Bob "Condor" Collins, who subsequently read parts of it over the phone to Howe, who recognized it as identical to the one flashed by Doty. Howe became even more impressed by the fact an active-duty officer had the "briefing paper, " and by then was arranging with HBO to broadcast Doty's earth-shaking disclosures.

"Condor" Collins claimed to have gotten most of his information about UFOs, captured aliens and underground bases from U.S.A.F. Lt. Col Ernie Kellerstrauss, with whom he had served at Wright-Patterson AFB. Kellerstrauss may have been the officer who purportedly had spent a year with EBE-1, during which he'd learned of the critter's preference for strawberry ice cream. Now retired and living near Dayton, Ohio, "Hawk" Kellerstrauss refuses to comment on Collins' claims.

In any case, when Moore came to Denver to meet with Howe, he proposed they work together to exploit "MJ-12's" revelations, suggesting that Howe do the film and he'd write the book. Moore added that he intended to get "very rich" from the effort. Howe, convinced she'd been chosen to perform a great mission for the government (the old "Messiah" syndrome), which according to Doty, wanted to come clean about UFOs, said she wanted only to perform her patriotic duty and desired only to be reimbursed for her expenses.

Meanwhile, Moore conferred with Brad Sparks, whom he regarded as an expert on the government's handling of UFOs. Moore asked Sparks which crashed saucer cases he though offered the most promise for pay dirt, and Sparks said he thought the Roswell incident, about which Moore had previously co-authored a book, and one that reportedly occured in December 1950 near the Texas-Mexico border. The latter case had been researched by Todd Zechel, who first heard about it in 1964 from a colleague in the Army Security Agency whose uncle had purportedly headed the recovery. Sparks, along with Jerome Clark, had been kept apprised of Zechel's investigation.

Two manuscripts written by Zechel on the case had been obtained by Moore under suspicious circumstances. One was acquired from Jerome Clark, with whom Zechel had been writing a book. (Clark reportedly leaked the report to Moore in revenge for Zechel pulling out of the book deal, which Zechel claims was caused by Clark refusing to do his share of the work.) A second, up-dated report was given to Moore by Harper and Row's West Coast office, purportedly in an effort to evaluate the validity of it.

In December 1984, Jaime Shandera, a TV producer and friend of Moore's, received in the mail a roll of 35 mm film that contained the new improved "Presidential Briefing Paper." Quickly, Moore set about circulating this material in his typical manner of legitimizing phony documents. Later, the hoax briefing papers would be revealed to the world in a full-blown press conference and be shown on ABC-TV's prestigious 'Nightline' with Ted Koppel (in June 1987) and other shows.

It is no surprise that the briefing papers devoted a great deal of space validating Moore's pet case, the 1947 Roswell incident, and only a scant paragraph to the 1950 case. Moore further tipped his hand by the manner in which the 1950 crash is described. Zechel's early report on it, written in 1978, located it near Laredo, Texas, while his up-dated report, written in 1982, claimed it occurred near Del Rio, Texas, nearly 400 miles from Laredo. The two reports also had slight differences in dates, the first stating it happenned on Dec. 7, 1950 and the second said Dec. 5, 1950.

Moore solved these contradictions by dividing the differences in half, stating the location of the crash as "El Indio-Guerrero," which is about halfway between Laredo and Del Rio, and the date as "6 December 1950," precisely between Zechel's two dates. But the division method is not quite as inspired as Moore's description of the flying saucer as "almost completely incinerated," adding that what little debris remained was taken to Sandia Lab.

One can almost picture Moore's devious mind churning as he created the briefing paper. He had come to hate Zechel because the CAUS founder had dared to criticize the Roswell incident in the report leaked by Jerome Clark, plus he had heard Clark blame Zechel for the collapse of his marriage--the ex-Mrs. Clark had apparently counted on the Clark/Zechel book elevating them out of near-poverty. So Moore rationalized his venom and aimed it at Zechels's pet case. "I'll fix him," one can hear Moore vowing, "I'll burn up his damn saucer."

Throughout the affair Moore dropped a number of clues to indicate his involvement in creating the briefing paper--almost crying out, "Stop me before I hoax again!" One example of this is an article in 'Fate' magazine written by Jerome Clark, during the period Clark was still enoumored with Moore. Clark had worshipfully told the story of how the briefing "documents" had come to light. Moore said he was ensconced in a motel room when "at precisely 5:00 P.M. someone knocked on the door and a man appeared with a bundle under his arm. He said to Moore that he had 17 minutes to do whatever he wanted with what he was about to be given. He could copy it but couldn't keep it. _Moore had a camera and did his best_ . The document purported to be a briefing paper telling newly-elected President Jimmy Carter about MJ-12, Project Aquarius, the little grey men and the rest (emphasis added.)

Hmmm, could this be the same 35 mm photos that showed up in Shandera's mailbox? When the obvious evidence of Moore's guilt was brought to Clark's attention, he was quick to defend his pal. "Oh, no that was a _different_ briefing paper," Clark disclaimed. Oh, yeah? So what happened to _that_ briefing paper, Jerry?

Of course, by this time Moore had begun to distance himself from Rick Doty, since it had become obvious to a number of people who had communicated with Doty that he was a shameless, compulsive liar. Moore didn't denounce Doty, however, he merely tried to shift the "Falcon" identity to someone else, telling Clark that "Falcon" was really a Defense Intelligence Agency employee. Curiously, the new "Falcon" just happened to be telling Moore the same things as the old "Falcon," only the spotlight was now presumably off Doty.

In similar fashion, when it became evident to low-level researchers that Paul Bennewitz was mentally ill and his information unreliable, Moore cunningly claimed to be a disinformation agent who had been assigned to spy on and confuse Bennewitz. Supposedly, this was necessitated by Bennewitz having stumbled onto some big UFO secrets, but as we have seen, Bennewitz's sightings were merely a product of his own jumbled mind. In reality, Moore adopted the "secret-agent" stance in order to protect Doty and give himself the opportunity to protest his innocence in the future should anyone prove his "Presidential Briefing Paper," "MJ-12" or "Aquarius" documents to be bogus. That is, he could always claim he was "just following orders," much in the manner of the Nazis brought to trial for war crimes.

There are those who will no doubt continue to contend that all of this is the result of some giant conspiracy designed to disinform, confuse and mislead Maccabee, Moore, Linda Moulton Howe, the Fund, and the rest of ufology. The available evidence certainly indicates Moore and Doty fabricated the MJ-12 hoax independently and almost certainly for personal gain. In our opinion there is little doubt that as more and more of this grand hoax caves in on him, Moore will retreat further behind his "controlled agent" persona and leave it up to his dwindling followers to sort it all out.

Remarkably, even after Moore made his confession in Las Vegas (an appropriate setting) thanks to Maccabee's influence he was still able to have himself and Doty portrayed as authentic heroes in books by Whitley Strieber (Majestic) and Howard Blum (Out There). Even best-selling author Sydney Sheldon contributed to the salute to this fine pair of American heroes, one of whom had "confessed" to driving an innocent man nuts!

Actually a tip of the hat from the creators of Hitler's diary and the author of the Howard Hughes hoax, Clifford Irving, would have been a hell of a lot more appropriate.

To be frank, the whole sorry mess is a great example of what happens when you allow the foxes to guard the chickens. Ufology, which lives by the old "hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil" when it comes to each others pet cases, wallows in hoaxes and misinformation as a result. But that wouldn't be so discouraging if it were not for the fact all this rubbish is passed onto the public in the form of books, TV shows and lectures.

The only leading ufologists who have acted responsibly in this whole affair have been Greenwood and Fawcett of CAUS. For their troubles, they have been vilified, hated, resented or just plain ignored by the rest of ufology in the mad rush to grind out books sparked by Moore's deceptions. In this field of study, the hoaxers are celebrated and those who cry foul are sent packing.


The Sea Gull & The Pellican

Dr. Maccabee's (the "SEA GULL" in Bill Moore's foolish aviary) activities and conduct throughout the whole MJ-12 affair must now be critically re-examined. How much involvement did he have in spreading the MJ-12 hoax? How much influence did Ron Pandolfi (the "PELLICAN") have over his conduct during this whole affair?

Dr. Maccabee published a paper titled 'UFO Landings Near Kirtland AFB or Welcome to the Cosmic Watergate' in 1985. The report was co-authored by Bill Moore and printed on FUFOR stationary. The report is an investigation into the alledged incident described in the Kirtland Landing Document dated Sept. 9, 1980 released by HQ/AFOSI. A careful examination of the circumstances surrounding the document (and Maccabee's _own report_) clearly shows that the document is a fraud created by Doty. Dr. Maccabee's apparent support for the Kirtland document lent credence to Doty and his fraudulent claims at a critical time. If Dr. Maccabee had exposed Doty at this point a great deal of time and effort could have been saved by researchers. Dr. Maccabee now privately admits that the whole MJ-12 mess is probably a hoax. He justifies his position of providing support for the MJ-12 investigation by maintaining that there is a secret control group, a MJ-12 "by any name" as he puts it. Apparently the details aren't important. When did Maccabee know the MJ-12 material was fraudulent, was it before he provided Stan Friedman with $16,000 of Fund money?

It must be pointed out here that the Fund rejected a detailed proposal to re- sue the CIA under FOIA submitted by Todd Zechel a few years ago. Zechel had outlined a plan to go after the 15,000 documents described by Maccabee's friend, Kit Green, and had asked for a paltry $500 to get the effort rolling, using a dilligent attorney who had volunteered to do the legal work. The Fund quickly rejected Zechel's proposal, but later handed $16,000 to Stan Friedman in an effort to validate the MJ-12 documents. Unfortunately we are forced now to re-examine the motives of Dr. Maccabee. We must ask if his CIA contacts had any input into this (or any) decisions regarding proposals. This input may not have been so obvious as one would first think. Consider the scenario wherein Maccabee's CIA contacts express subtle hints suggesting to Maccabee that there may have been an MJ-12, this may have been enough to influence his decision to make such a large grant. Conversely, who knows what input the CIA had in Maccabee's rejection of Zechel's modest proposal.
 

One Last Quickie

In summary, Moore runs around giving silly code names to everyone he meets who's connected in some way to the government, much like a 10 year old boy trying to play spy. None of these people have any direct knowledge of UFO events from what we've seen, and mostly they just repeat or re-circulate stories originated by Moore and Doty. Moore only uses them to create an aura of mystique around himself and to obfuscate the bogus nature of his "discoveries."

Doty apparently had a track record of financial improprieties, and, according to Maccabee, was thrown out of AFOSI, demoted to cook and ultimately forced out of the Air Force. Seemingly, his entry into the UFO field was part of a pattern of misconduct, and given the willingness of many ufologists to believe wild tales, he was able to manipulate their credulity into greater gains and glory than would have been possible elsewhere.

Yet even after Doty's credibility had (or should have) dropped to zero and Moore himself had "confessed" to being a disinformationist, they were, in late 1991, able to pull off yet another swindle.

In an announcement dated Oct. 25, 1991, Moore invited his FOCUS newsletter subscribers to send him $25.00 in order to receive a "free copy" of a book he was writing with Doty and Jaime Shandera. The book was offered as a re- subscription benefit. This "free" book was supposed to be published in January 1992, entitled, "The Scientist, the Government & UFOs...Personal Recollections of the Paul Bennewitz Affair...A Case Study in Disinformation." In a tabloid like rave, Moore previewed the book thusly:

"Government cover-up; disinformation; UFO abductions; alien underground bases; secret treaties with extraterrestrials; plots to take over and enslave planet Earth; Dulce,New Mexico; Groom Lake/Area 51,Nevada; strange goings on at Kirtland AFB; secret agents; covert operations, mysterious radio transmissions; grey aliens; blond aliens; and much much more!"

Reportedly, hundreds of suckers sent in their $25.00, proving P.T. Barnum right once again. And of course they all got stiffed:FOCUS promptly went out of business, the "free" book never got printed and Moore next emerged as the "executive editor" of FAR OUT magazine published by Larry Flynt (who also publishes _Hustler_ magazine) where he began publishing articles by some of his good friends like Bruce Maccabee.

Perhaps Moore, now that he's gainfully employed will make refunds. But you can probably count on that much as you can count on him making one last confession-that he helped created the single biggest hoax in ufology.

It is important to note here that all this should be viewed not as a tribute to Bill Moore's hoaxing abilities but rather in light of Dr. Maccabee's (hence FUFOR's) concurrent relationship with the CIA. Has Dr. Maccabee's support for Moore and MJ-12 simply been the result of poor personal judgement?
 

Gulf Breeze

No single individual bears greater responsibility for promoting the Gulf Breeze case to the ufological community and probably the general public than Dr. Bruce Maccabee. Dr. Maccabee was one of the earliest and most vociferous proponents of the case. His technical evaluation of the photographic evidence in the case was forceful and stressed that the hoax explanation was unlikely due to the high degree of technical difficulty that would be required to fabricate similar photographs. Yet after far too much wasted time and resources most serious researchers have come to the conclusion that indeed the case is a hoax.

One must question Dr. Maccabee's personal and professional judgement in this case. Did he simply become emotionally involved with the participants (he became close friends with Ed & Frances Walters early in the investigation) and then allow this involvement to cloud his critical facilities? Or, is his technical ability to analyze photographic evidence really that poor? Given his then ongoing relationship with Ron Pandolfi of the CIA (and his admission to having briefed intelligence officials on the case) one could speculate that Dr. Maccabee's public support for the case might have been encouraged by his intelligence contacts. This would certainly have served the CIA's interest in keeping serious investigation of the UFO phenomena out of the public domain. It is important to note that Pandolfi has stated to others that he considers Ed Walters to be a "total fraud."

We submit that even if Dr. Maccabee is an honest proponent of the case on what he considers to be its technical merit that it is inappropriate for him to maintain any level of secret relationship with the CIA given his status with the Fund for UFO Research and the level of public (media) exposure he maintains in connection with this subject.
 

An Embarrassing Protege'

Dr. Maccabee also maintains a relationship with Robert Oechsler, a man whose motives in the field are at best mercenary. He has at one point or another involved himself in virtually every aspect of ufology. Mr. Oechsler has been variously described as a clown, a fraud and even a con-man (in 1991 he attempted to involve several of his then friends in the UFO field in some sort of bizarre pyramid scheme in which participants were to send him money via Federal Express (so as to avoid federal laws governing mail fraud)--telling at least one associate that he intended to make several hundred thousand dollars). Mr. Oechsler who represents himself as a former "NASA Mission Specialist" has participated with Dr. Maccabee in the photographic analysis of the Gulf Breeze material.

Mr. Oechsler has also made a series of fantastic claims concerning his alledged discoveries of various secret government UFO related projects including an operational anti-gravity chamber, sophisticated anti-alien defense installations, a wide-ranging program to educate the general public as to the reality of the UFO phenomenon and others too tedious to detail here. These "discoveries" were published by Timothy Good in his book "Alien Liaison" in England and more recently in "Alien Contact" here in the United States. It is virtually certain that most if not all of Mr. Oechsler's claims are fraudulent and he has intimated to Walt Andrus, International Director of the Mutual UFO Network, that he fabricated at least some of the material.

Most recently, Mr. Oechsler has been associated with the "Guardian" case (involving an alledged UFO landing/crash in Ontario, Canada). It is immediately apparent to anyone who views the Guardian film or reads the accompanying documents (which detail some sort of alliance between evil aliens and the Red Chinese) that the case is a very poor quality hoax unworthy of the average high school student here in the United States.

It could be argued that were there an official policy of ridicule and debunking that this is precisely the quality of information that the responsible intelligence agencies would want to have wide exposure. It would serve their interests to have opportunists such as Oechsler or sincere but every credulous individuals such as Linda Moulton Howe acting as the mass media's principal contacts with this subject matter.

Dr. Maccabee has made at least one trip to Ontario to investigate the case. It is not known whether any Fund for UFO Research monies were expended in this investigation. Mr. Oechsler has made at least 5 trips to the area - again it is unknown whether Fund for UFO Research monies have been expended.

The most important point here is not Oechsler's selling of this material to the television shows 'Unsolved Mysteries' and 'Sightings' but Dr. Maccabee's clear support for the validity of the case. Dr. Maccabee spoke in support of the authenticity of the Guardian video on at least one television program and before the large audience of a UFO conference in Silver Spring, MD. Once again we are forced to ask if Dr. Maccabee's past UFO briefings at the CIA we (as taxpayers) hope that he will refrain from subjecting hundreds of CIA personnel to a "Guardian" briefing. The picture of large numbers of CIA employees expending many man-hours attempting to locate references to a Red Chinese-alien connection is frightening.
 

Operation Right to Know

Operation Right to Know is a relatively new UFO group seeking to end the secrecy concerning UFO information. They are attempting to gather public support for their objectives via direct political action. This group organized a small but well run demonstration at the White House in 1992 and planned a much larger one for 1993 (also at the White House) to be held in conjunction with the annual MUFON symposium being held in Richmond, VA. Members of the Fund for UFO Research had strongly objected to such a planned demonstration. It had been reported that the fund discouraged the MUFON organization from participating in the demonstration. While the demonstration did take place and was well run, we can only speculate on how much greater impact might have been achieved if there had been a much larger turnout resulting from official MUFON encouragement. The objections raised (primarily by Fred Whiting) had ostensibly been on philosophical grounds. But given Dr. Maccabee's relationship with the CIA, the actual reasons for this opposition are in question.
 

Clear & Present Danger

Perhaps the single most troubling episode involving Dr. Maccabee's connection with the CIA was his removal of his long time friend Larry Bryant from the Fund for UFO Research. Larry Bryant, another of the Fund's founders, was present at a meeting when Maccabee revealed that he had obtained FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service) translations from the CIA, and subsequently submitted a FOIA request to the Agency for other UFO-related FBIS reports. For some reason, Bryant's request angered the CIA, and Maccabee was scolded by Pandolfi, who stated that Bryant's action "could jeopardize the _Fund's relationship with the CIA_." Shortly, Bryant received a "Dear Mr. Bryant" letter from Maccabee terminating Bryant's membership in the Fund.

Sadly, this appears to be yet another example of Maccabee valuing his relationship with the CIA more that he values the friendship and services of a long-time associate like Larry Bryant, a man whose credentials as an anti- secrecy activist have been established over 35 years of dedication to the cause, often at great peril and expense to himself.
 

Maccabee Disinforms FUFOR

Apparently at the same time Maccabee was making great effort to brief members of the CIA on various UFO matters, he did not feel the need to extend the same courtesy to other members of the Fund for UFO Research. The results of a cursory poll of other members of the Fund regarding Maccabee's intelligence contacts indicate that none of the Fund members were fully aware of his dealings with Pandolfi. Some of the members knew he had made overtures to the CIA and others were vaguely aware of contacts and briefings but none were aware of the full extent of these contacts.

When Maccabee's activities with the CIA were brought to the attention of Richard Hall, the Fund's newly elected chairman, Hall said that he and a couple of other Executive Committee members had attempted to discourage Maccee's overtures to the CIA. Hall agreed that Maccabee's CIA connections would create the appearance of impropriety and were an obvious conflict of interest. Hall also said that he was equally perplexed by some of the UFO cases that Maccabee had promoted such as Gulf Breeze and the "Guardian" case.

Hall said that Maccabee's views no longer represented the views of the ruling body of the Fund and indicated that he would have to take steps to sever ties between the Fund and the U.S. Intelligence community.
 

In Summary

Apparently all Maccabee has gotten for 14 years of cooperation with the CIA is a handful of FBIS translations of Soviet news accounts of Russian UFO sightings. These same reports were evidently leaked to the U.S. news media by the CIA, perhaps in an effort to embarrass the Soviets. The same type and quality of information can be had by simply monitoring CNN. The actual FBIS translations are available by region through the National Technical Information Service for several hundred dollars annual subscription fee, no special access is required.

We submit that it is improper for Dr. Maccabee either as an individual or as a representative of the Fund for UFO Research to maintain any manner of clandestine relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency. It is improper for the Fund to portray a contentious image concerning past and present secrecy surrounding government UFO information while Dr. Maccabee has this ongoing secret dialogue with CIA employees. It is improper for the Fund to solicit evidence of government UFO cover-up and invite people to come forward with proposals to investigate such matters while one of the Fund's top officials is briefing CIA officials on the latest developments. How can the Fund be trusted to protect the proprietary interests or privacy of those seeking to compel CIA disclosures when its most important member is in regular contact with employees of the Directorate of Science & Technology, CIA ? We call upon other responsible members of the Fund for UFO Research to take appropriate action. 
 

^ed