SUBJECT: E B E's FILE: UFO1030
PART 11
In 1989 Moore said that "in early 1983 I became aware that Rick
[Doty] was involved with a team of several others, including one
fellow from Denver that I knew of and at least one who was
working out of Washington, D.C., in playing an elaborate
disinformation scheme against a prominent UfO researcher who, at
the time, had close connections with a major television film
company interested in doing a UFO documentary." He was referring
to Howe, of course. The episode was a counterintelligence sting
operation, part of the "wall of disinformation" intended to
"confuse" the Bennewitz issue and to "call his credibility into
question." Because of Howe's interest in Bennewitz's work,
according to Moore, "certain elements within the intelligence
community were concerned that the story of his having intercepted
low frequency electromagnetic emissions from the Coyote Canyon
area of the Kirtland/Sandia complex would end up as part of a
feature film. Since this in turn might influence others (possibly
even the Russians) to attempt similar experiments, someone in a
control position apparently felt it had to be stopped before it
got out of hand." In his observation, Moore said, "the government
seemed hell bent on severing the ties that existed between [Howe]
and [HBO]" (Moore, 1989b).
Doty's assertion that Howe had misrepresented their meeting was
not to be taken seriously, according to Moore, since Doty was
bound by a security oath and could not discuss the matter freely
Moore said that the Aztec crash, known beyond reasonable doubt
never to have occurred, was something Doty had added to the
document after learning from Moore of his recent investigation of
the hoax.
In December 1984, in the midst of continuing contact with their
own sources (Doty and a number of others) who claimed to be
leaking the secret of the cover-up, Moore's associate Jaime
Shandera received a roll of 35mm film containing, it turned out
what purported to be a briefing paper dated November 18, 1952,
and intended for president-elect Eisenhower. The purported
author, Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, reported that an "Operation
Majestic-12," consisting of a dozen top scientists, military
officers and intelligence specialists, had been set up by
presidential order on September 24, 1947, to study the Roswell
remains and the four humanoid bodies that had been recovered
nearby. The document report that the team directed by MJ12 member
and physiologist Detlev Bronk "has suggested the term 'Extra-
terrestrial Biological Entities', or 'EBEs', be adopted as the
standard term of reference for these creatures until such time as
a more definitive designation can be agreed upon." Brief mention
is also made of a December 6, 1950, crash along the Texas-Mexico
border. Nothing is said, however, about live aliens or
communications with them.
In July 1985 Moore and Shandera, acting on tips from their
sources, traveled to Washington and spent a few days going
through recently declassified documents in Record Group 341,
including Top Secret Air Force intelligence files from USAF
Headquarters. In the 126th box whose contents they examined, they
found a brief memo dated July 14, 1954, from Robert Cutler,
Special Assistant to the President, to Gen. Nathan Twining. It
says "The president has decided that the MJ-12/SSP [Special
Studies Project] briefing should take place during the already
scheduled White House meeting of July 16 rather than following it
as previously intended. More precise arrangements will be
explained to you upon your arrival. Your concurrence in the above
change of arrangements is assumed" (Friedman, 1987).
The Cutler/Twining memo, as it would be called in the
controversies that erupted after Moore released the MJ-12
document to the world in the spring of 1987, is the only official
document-not to be confused with such disputed ones as the
November 17, 1980, Aquarius document-to mention MJ-12. (Several
critics of the MJ-12 affair have questioned the memo's
authenticity as well, but so far without unambiguous success.)
The memo does not, of course, say what the MJ12 Special Studies
Project was.
MJ-12 Goes Public: Just prior to Moore's release of the MJ-12
briefing paper, another copy was leaked to British ufologist
Timothy Good, who took his copy to the press. The first newspaper
article on it appeared in the London Observer of May 31, 1987,
and soon it was the subject of pieces in the New York Times,
Washington Post and ABC-TV's Nightline. It was also denounced,
not altogether persuasively, both by professional debunkers and
by many ufologists. The dispute would rage without resolution
well into 1989, when critics discovered that President Truman's
signature on the September 24, 1947, executive order (appended to
the briefing paper) was exactly like his signature on an
undisputed, UFO-unrelated October 1, 1947, letter to his science
adviser (and supposed MJ-12 member) Vannevar Bush. To all
appearances a forger had appended a real signature to a fake
letter. The MJ-12 document began to look like another
disinformation scheme.
Although acutely aware of the mass of disinformation circulating
throughout the UFO community, Moore remained convinced that at
least some of the information his own sources were giving him was
authentic. In 1988 he provided two of his sources, "Falcon" (Sgt.
Doty according to some) and "Condor" (later claimed to be former
U.S. Air Force Capt. Robert Collins), to a television production
company. (Moore and Shandera had given them avian names and
called the sources collectively "the birds.") UFO Cover-up . . .
Live, a two-hour program, aired in October 1988, with Falcon and
Condor, their faces shaded, their voices altered, relating the
same tales with which they had regaled Moore and Shandera. The
show, almost universally judged a laughable embarrassment, was
most remembered for the informants' statements that the aliens
favored ancient Tibetan music and strawberry ice cream. Critics
found the latter allegation especially hilarious.
end of part 11
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