Your Paracast Newsletter -- March 31, 2012

THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
March 31, 2012

An Amazing UFO Film and the Paul Bennewitz Case Explored on The Paracast

Sunday, April 1, 2012: The Paracast covers a world beyond science, where UFOs, poltergeists and strange phenomena of all kinds have been reported by millions across the planet.

This Week's Episode: Gene and Chris present author and longtime UFO investigator Chris Lambright, author of "X Descending," and special guest Ray Stanford to discuss how how a private study of UFO films may have influenced amazing new developments in aerospace propulsion. Our guests will also discuss the mysterious Paul Bennewitz case and how he succumbed to possible government disinformation and dirty tricks.

The “Shadow Figures” of the UFO Field
By Gene Steinberg

It has long been speculated that U.S. government agents have infiltrated the UFO field, and have caused all sorts of mischief. From the very earliest days of the modern era, we’ve heard reports of all sorts of peculiar government behavior.

In 1953, UFO researcher Albert K. Bender shut down his flying saucer club, claiming that three men wearing black suits, supposedly government operatives, visited him and told him to shut up because he knew too much about UFO reality. Thus began the legend of the MIB, although such alleged shenanigans occurred even earlier.

Take the 1947 Maury Island UFO case. As described in the book UFO pioneer Kenneth Arnold wrote with Ray Palmer, “The Coming of the Saucers,” when he traveled to Tacoma, WA to investigate the sighting, his hotel room was tapped, and his overheard conversations were being relayed to members of the press.

Even stranger: When Arnold first arrived in Tacoma, he discovered that pretty much all the hotel rooms in that city were occupied. Despite that uncomfortable fact, a room had already been reserved in his name at the last hotel he called. Were these the acts of government spies, or individuals trying to play a prank on Arnold?

With Bender, there is good reason to believe his alleged MIB encounters was due to other causes, perhaps more personal in nature. Some years later, Bender even wrote a book, “Flying Saucers and the Three Men,” heavily edited by legendary UFO author Gray Barker, in which he claimed his visitors were extraterrestrial.

As chronicled in books and magazine articles by John Keel and others, supposed MIB have been infiltrating UFO research for a number of years. Pranksters? Government operatives? ET? Or maybe some people just became a little too paranoid when people began to contact them in the wake of a UFO or other offbeat encounter.

More recently, a key figure in the investigation of the purported UFO crash in Roswell, NM, William Moore, confessed to being a willing participant in alleged government disinformation. Some years earlier, he wrote “The Roswell Incident” with Charles Berlitz, a world traveler who had also written hot-selling books about the Bermuda Triangle and other subjects. Nuclear physicist and UFO lecturer Stanton T. Friedman also heavily contributed to the Roswell book, but didn’t earn a byline.

In passing, I knew Berlitz fairly well in those days, and offered him lots of guidance on two of his books in exchange of a couple of credits and free lunches.

Moore was also instrumental in promoting the infamous MJ-12 documents, which supposedly describe a small group of scientists and military leaders formed to investigate Roswell and other UFO incidents.

Everything fell apart for Moore when he appeared at a Las Vegas MUFON conference 1989, and confessed his willing participation in disinformation activities involving such people as Paul Bennewitz, a businessperson who found himself immersed in an “X-Files” sort of odyssey after giving a report about his UFO encounter, which included films and photographs, to the Kirtland Air Force Base.

Moore claimed that he had worked with such curious fringe UFO figures as Richard Doty, a former Air Force Sergeant and possible government agent, in making Bennewitz believe that he had proof that ETs were present on Earth, and of the existence of a cover-up. In those days, Doty was allegedly working with a team of intelligence agents who gave themselves bird-like nicknames and called their little group, “The Aviary.” Part of Moore’s activities may have included the MJ-12 episode, although Stanton Friedman and others believe they can prove that at least some of those documents are genuine.

Obviously, Moore’s credibility went out the window with that confession. Doty and other alleged “Aviary” members are still around, but it’s hard to say whether any of them can be believed. One would think that, if their activities were officially sanctioned, they wouldn’t be so free and easy to reveal the dirty details. Indeed, they’d be directed to say nothing in the interests of national security; that is, assuming these activities really happened, and that they didn’t just go rogue.

These days, reports of such unsavory activities are almost non-existent. I suppose it’s possible that Moore, Doty and the rest of that crowd are little more than glory seekers who told these tall tales in the quest for fame and fortune. If that was their true motive, they failed.

I dare say few people remember these characters nowadays. Sure, someone who has read the original Berlitz/Moore/Friedman book might be curious about Moore’s fate, but little more. Moore is still around, though he hasn’t participated in the UFO field since feeding information to author Greg Bishop for his 2005 book, “Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth.” Berlitz died in 2003. Stanton Freidman is still an active and respected member of the UFO community.

The Bennewitz affair is also covered extensively in a new book by UFO investigator Chris Lambright, “X Descending,” which is featured on this weekend’s episode of The Paracast.

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