SUBJECT: JUST CASUE NEWSLETTER                               FILE: UFO2940





>>Second of two-part excerpt from "Just Cause", newsletter of Citizens Against
UFO Secrecy, regarding the controversial "Aquarius" memo, and "MJ 12".
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What about the data in the "MJ12" report? The date is immediately telling.
September 18, 1947, is the birthday of the CIA, the official first day of their
existence! Is it a coincidence or a tell-tale clue to the document being phony?
Or could this report have been one of the first orders of business for the
flegdling CIA?

   The connection of the 1947 Roswell incident to this affair makes sense.
Based on the information unveiled by Bill Moore, Stan Friedman and others, the
Roswell crash was clearly a major topic in high government circles. It strains
credibility to think that piles of metallic debris would have been sent to
Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio from New Mexico for analysis if the material were
simply parts of what should have been an easily-recognizable radar reflector
balloon to Army Air Force officers. After the arrival of the material at
Wright-Patterson and wherever else it may have gone, official documentation
ceases. No useful government files describing analysis of the debris have been
unearthed. Obviously analysis took place somewhere. Where is the report? If the
Roswell object were a strange device of some sort, then involvement of the
individuals listed as MJ 12 would make sense.

   My first thoughts upon seeing this list of people is that if a UFO had
crashed and was recovered, this would be the kind of panel that I would want to
put together to investigate the matter. All of these individuals were at the
top in their respective areas of experience during the late 1940's and had the
added benefit of government experience behind them. The Majestic 12 indeed!


   A number of them were later involved in the UFO phenomenon. In fact, fully
half of the panel would make a mark on UFO history during and after 1947:


o   Hoyt Vandenberg - said to have read the now-famous 1948 "Estimate of the
Situation" and subsequently ordered it downgraded and destroyed for lack of
evidence that UFO's were interplanetary.

o   Roscoe Hillenkoeter - Former board member of NICAP and proponent of UFO
reality.
o   Vannevar Bush - Mentioned in the formelry top secret Canadian "Smith memo"
of November 21, 1950, as the head of a "concentrated effort" to study UFOs.
o   Nathan Twining - Authored a well-known September 1947 Air Force memo
strongly endorsing the serious nature of UFOs.
o   Donald Menzel - Author of 3 books debunking the UFO phenomenon.
o   Lloyd Berkner - member of the CIA's "Robertson Panel" of 1953.

   Panel members' background show that most had connections to either the
National Security Council or the Research and Development Board (R&DB). The
R&DB figures prominently in testimony given to us by Dr. Robert Sarbacher and
CAUS is convinced that UFO file material exists in the R&DB's holdings at the
National Archives.

   Another curiousity. General Twining's pro-UFO "flying discs" memo (see
CLEAR INTENT, pp.213-214) dated September 23, 1947, comes only five days after
the MJ12 report. Could Twining's possible connection to an MJ12 panel have had
an influence on his writing of the 9/23/47 memo?

   The listing of Vandenberg and particularly Donald Menzel as MJ12 members is
a major curiousity since both had later negative involvement in UFOs. If an
MJ12 Panel concluded that UFOs were real, Menzel's and Vandenberg's debunking
would seem illogical. Or would it?

   If a singular incident of high national security importance occurred, like
a Roswell incident, such could be classified more highly even that the H-Bomb,
as the Smith memo so aptly put it. As study of the phenomenon progressed,
secrecy would be of the utmost importance and any effort to diffuse the
interest of the public and non-need-to-know personnel would be encouraged.
Therefore, General Vandenberg, by batting down Project Sign's "Estimate of the
Situation", would be preventing undue attention from being drawn to the subject
by Project Sign personnel, who could not be regarded as having access to data
more highly classified than the H-Bomb. It was too visible to be part of an
"inner circle". The "Estimate" also lacked the proof to justify an
interplanetary explanation for UFOs.
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>>To be continued in another file



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