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Your Paracast Newsletter — September 25, 2016


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
September 25, 2016
www.theparacast.com


Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden Discuss UFO Secrecy and Disinformation Agents on The Paracast

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This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris welcome veteran UFO researchers Stanton T. Friedman and Kathleen Marden, authors of “Fact, Fiction and Flying Saucers,” which is subtitled, “The Truth Behind the Misinformation, Distortion, and Derision by Debunkers, Government Agencies, and Conspiracy Conmen.” The book traces the origins of the government’s ongoing conspiracy to debunk UFO sightings in order to hide the truth about the phenomenon. The book focuses on three of the most famous — or infamous — debunkers, astronomer Dr. Howard Menzel, aviation journalist Philip Klass, and Dr. Edward Condon, a nuclear physicist, and how they attempted to obscure the truth with casual dismissals of some of the most significant evidence.

Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet

Stanton Friedman’s Blog: Stanton Friedman - Physicist, Lecturer, UFO Researcher

Kathleen Marden’s Blog: KathleenMardenUFO

After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on September 25: In a brief trivia discussion, Gene and Chris focus on the recent passing of a genuine New York City character, “Crazy” Eddie Antar, who built a large chain of audio electronics stores with “insane prices” years ago before he and his brother were jailed for looting the company. The discussion also focuses on the “death” of high-end consumer audio before returning to the paranormal. So Gene and Chris talk about some of the most notorious skeptics in the UFO field, such as Dr. Donald Menzel, Philip J. Klass and Dr. Edward Condon. We’re they the puppets of intelligence agencies? Did they truly believe their nonsense? Or was it a matter of both? Chris and Gene mention their differing attitudes towards collectibles, as Gene mostly sells off his old stuff, while Chris has spent time and money over the years gathering rare and unusual paranormal books .

Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.

The UFO Field’s Unholy Three?

By Gene Steinberg

In their new book, “Fact, Fiction and Flying Saucers,” veteran UFO investigators Stanton T. Friedman and Kathleen Marden attempt to trace the early days of the infamous “Silence Group.” These are the people within the government who were allegedly charged with keeping the secret of the saucers, the supposed truth that Earth is being visited by beings from other planets.

Now this may come across is covering old ground that has already been explored extensively by other authors over the years, starting with Major Donald E. Keyhoe in the 1950s. But Stan and Kathy have thoroughly examined numerous archives and Freedom of Information documents to try to pin down precisely what happened and when, to trace the techniques used to foster what they regard as the false impression that there was nothing to the UFO mystery.

They also name names, which a big focus on three of the most famous debunkers, and their possible links to each other and to a grand conspiracy to cover up the truth.

They begin with Dr. Howard H. Menzel, a well-known Harvard astronomer who had a long and distinguished career. In addition to being a scientist, he wrote science fiction stories under an assumed name, painted cartoons of space people, and was even involved in code or cryptanalysis during World War II. Stan and Kathy uncovered evidence that, unknown to even his colleagues at Harvard, he worked for an intelligence agency for many years.

Now Menzel is also notorious for his simplistic and offhand dismissals of UFO evidence. He wrote books on the subject, and made public appearances as one of the first and most famous saucer debunkers. But the biggest criticism you could make of Menzel was that he didn’t pay much attention to the facts in many of the cases that he attempted to expose. He would casually dismiss the saucers as mirages, hoaxes; anything but the possibility they might be real and of unknown origin.

Based on his efforts to insert himself into such UFO investigative efforts as the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, I suppose it’s fair to suggest that he had a darker motive, perhaps as a government agent tasked with discrediting the subject, or maybe he just couldn’t bring himself to believe there was any truth to it. Despite his position as a distinguished scientist, could it have been a case of self-delusion? Perhaps he was so wedded to the belief that UFOs weren’t real that he couldn’t bring himself to actually examine the evidence as carefully as he examined evidence about planets and stars.

In writing about Menzel for his historical UFO book, “The UFO Encyclopedia,” author Jerome Clark referred to the late astronomer as acting “like a man obsessed” when it came to his efforts to debunk the saucers. I recall observing his emotions unchecked in an old TV interview on the NBC “Open Mind” TV show in the 1960s, where he went up against author John G. Fuller, author of “Incident at Exeter.”

In a direct confrontation, Menzel made some flippant comments about the case being explained conventionally. Fuller went for the kill and promptly disassembled Menzel’s claims by asking a few pointed questions that demonstrated his opponent knew virtually nothing about the incident. There was a brief moment where Menzel seemed about to have an emotional breakdown on live television. That was hardly the image of a cold, dispassionate government agent charged with discrediting UFOs. It was more the reaction of someone emotionally wedded to his beliefs and completely unable to cope with answering a few well-aimed questions.

Another infamous member of this group was Philip J. Klass, best known as the editor of a popular magazine, “Aviation Week and Space Technology.” He used that position of authority to become yet another arch debunker of flying saucers and, as with Dr. Menzel, he wrote books on the subject.

But his techniques weren’t dissimilar from his acquaintance from Harvard. He would overlook or misrepresent critical pieces of evidence to dismiss the viability of UFO cases. So it was quite easy for such UFO researchers as Stan to find fault with Klass.

Indeed, Klass’ quest to prevent serious consideration of UFOs evidently led to his involvement in setting up an organization consisting of skeptics that focused on exposing alleged pseudo-scientific claims. So he was a founding fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), which is now known by a simplified name, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. One of his “partners” in crime was Robert Schaefer, once a guest on The Paracast.

Unfortunately, Klass didn’t stop at attempting to disprove UFO sightings. He also went after scientists and others who dared to speak favorably about the phenomenon, sometimes even contacting their employers to complain about such “transgressions.”

Now while it’s probably easy to imagine Dr. Menzel as engaging in UFO debunking activities as an agent of the U.S. government because of his intelligence background, what about Klass? Did he also engage in his skeptical activities as a covert agent?

Well, certainly his work did put him in contact with a number of government sources in order to cover the latest news about the frontiers of space exploration, but does that mean that he also did their bidding? Wouldn’t that be just a little too obvious? Or was he the unwitting pawn of the powers that be?

At best, it’s a suspicion and not something that can be proven, though it’s always possible he took over from Dr. Menzel after the latter passed on. But that’s just speculation.

It may well be that both Menzel and Klass were, for reasons best known to themselves, unable to seriously consider the possibility that UFOs were real and felt compelled to simply dismiss the evidence out of hand.

Perhaps the same can be said for Dr. Edward Condon, who, from 1966 to 1968, served as head of the University of Colorado UFO Project that’s often referred to as the Condon Committee.

While the group, funded by the Air Force, predictably concluded there was nothing to the UFO mystery, indications that Condon planned to debunk the evidence from the very beginning certainly went a long way to discredit the final report issued at the end of the study. But it was sufficient to give the Air Force the excuse to shutter Project Blue Book, and, some suggest, take UFO research private.

Now it’s clear Stan and Kathy want us to believe this trio of debunkers in large part were acting on behalf of the Silence Group, or perhaps Majestic-12. While the existence of the latter remains controversial, the original papers, the so-called “Eisenhower Briefing Document,” listed Menzel as one of its 12 members. If the document was a fake, as many believe, perhaps the decision to list Menzel was meant as a private joke and nothing more.

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I was floored when I saw how "old" Crazy Eddie was (68) when he passed away.I remember seeing these commercials on wpix in '77 and probably earlier and just assumed he was this long established retailer. Instead it seems Eddie was crazy even in his late 20s
 
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