Monday, January 17, 2011

Philip Corso and MJ-12

There are many levels to UFO research and there are many different people adding to the confusion because of their own agendas. Sometimes those agendas are relatively benign, and sometimes they are almost evil.

All this is a way of saying that not all that long ago I was talking to Bill Birnes of UFO magazine and The Day After Roswell. He asked me where I had gotten a copy of the proposal for the book. I told him that I was not comfortable revealing the source and although he made a guess or two, I refused to provide any additional information.

Birnes took that well and then said that Philip J. Corso, his co-author on the book had never claimed to have been on the MJ-12 committee. That reference had been added by a movie company that had been interested in doing some sort of feature film based on the book. Neither Corso nor Birnes had endorsed that statement.

If you read the book, you’ll find no claim that Corso was a member of MJ-12, either as a primary, alternate or assistant. Corso’s story has nothing to do with MJ-12 or any such committee other than in passing.

My point here is not to suggest that the book is factual, fiction, or a combination of the two. It is only to point out that the reference to MJ-12 and Corso’s participation in it was made by others who didn’t understand these sorts of things. It was made by those whose agenda was to make a film and make money and not to necessarily advance the state of UFO research.

Being on MJ-12 was not a claim made by Corso according to what Bill told me.

What this really means is that I can’t, and you can’t, reject Corso’s story because he said he was a member of MJ-12. You can reject for other reasons if you must, but this is not one of them.

24 comments:

cda said...

I agree with your last two sentences.

It reminds me that Ray Santilli, when his (in)famous autopsy film first aired in 1995, had said in support of his film, that the two principal MJ-12 documents, namely the Hillenkoetter/Eisenhower briefing and the Truman letter, were both official releases from the National Archives!

Wrong on both counts, but you cannot reject Santilli's autopsy film on this score. You have to do so on other grounds.

Chet Dembeck said...
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starman said...

Histrionics, what about Corso rings true (other than Roswell was ET of course)? :)

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Chet Dembeck said...
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starman said...

What remarks by Corso and Stone sound crazy to you?

KRandle said...

Starman -

Oh, I don't know... Corso's claim of a time machine, shutting down the radar systems at White Sands... seeing an alien body at Ft. Riley...

Stone's claim he was at Kecksburg... or rather at the air base the ship was taken too... that he remote viewed the scene... that he is a member of some team that travels to crash sites (I wonder if he sees Willingham there?)... that there are 57 varieties of aliens...

That enough?

Chet Dembeck said...
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starman said...

KDR:

"seeing an alien body at Ft. Riley."

Ft Riley Kansas? A crash is said to have occurred there late in '64 so I don't know if we can dismiss this out of hand.

"..that there are 57 varieties of aliens."

Even excluding the possibility that some alien types are created artificially, that's not many compared to some estimates of the number of alien civilizations in the galaxy.

"..Corso told him that the alien were biological robots.."

Considering the likely impact of new technology on our own species, I'd be more surprised if advanced ETs are in a wholly natural state.

"..he also teared up a couple of times about how mean we are to the aliens."

Sounds real funny but others have, after all, claimed much the same thing. Tungate, Magruder (or his sons) and others have indicated confinement and testing on aliens, which wouldn't be surprising.

Chet Dembeck said...
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starman said...

"Think about it, men in combat come back with trinkets..."

Apples and oranges. That's mundane stuff not above top secret. You're right to take these stories with a grain of salt but we shouldn't dismiss them.

Chet Dembeck said...
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cda said...

Histronics:

You have your doubts about these guys? So do a great many others!

Radio and TV interviewers are apt to give fawning interviews to people who allege anomalous experiences (such as abductees) for the sake of general politeness. I am not the least surprised about Clifford Stone. I have one book of his that says it all. He believes, literally, in MJ-12. At least he did then, about 15 years ago. He probably still does. And yes, he once witnessed a UFO crash. And so on. Next thing, he will be abducted, if not already. Maybe before long he will be transported to Alpha Centauri.

You mention you read a 'crash' book by a 'Mr Kendle'. Do you mean K.Randle? If so, which such book? He has written at least three, to my knowledge.

Chet Dembeck said...
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KRandle said...

I'm going to step in here briefly, with a longer post to follow in the near future. I wanted to point out that Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte who wrote about the Willingham case believed that Bruce Maccabee had checked out Willingham. Maccabee thought that Todd Zechel had done it. Nobody had done it. Zechel, I think, knew the truth about Willingham's CAP connection but said nothing about it.

The point is that we sometimes have to ask the difficult questions and suspend our will to believe. Willingham seemed like a nice old man, but he was lying about his military career, forged documents to prove part of it and tried to gain a pension which he did not deserve. That eliminates him from the running.

And, as I saw, it took me almost a year to find the original story told by Willingham to compare it was the last and the two don't really come together other to suggest that a UFO crashed in Mexico.

Please remember that most of us do UFO research part time and using our own money. Sometimes we just don't cover all the bases.

starman said...

"What he said that day sounded reasonable until he started talking about 57 different kind of alien races. He lost me there."

I agree that many of these so called informants aren't credible. But the above isn't so outlandish. As I posted before, even if we exclude the possibility that many alien types are artificial creations, the figure of 57 is far below many estimates of the number of alien races in the galaxy. It's only about half of Drake's estimate of 100, considered conservative by others.

Chet Dembeck said...
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cda said...

Histronics:

One answer to your question about Stone and the 57 varieties is that perhaps he has actually met one representative from each of these 57 alien races. You could hardly expect him to have supporting documents for this.

All right, I'm being facetious, but why not? Sometimes you just have to treat a few (very few) UFO spokespersons or UFO buffs in this way.

He certainly claims to have personally witnessed almost everything that could happen in the UFO world.

Do we in fact know if Stone is still resident on planet earth?

Chet Dembeck said...
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starman said...

"...the issue is where Stone came up with this..."

You mean he documented everything he said, until he mentioned the 57 races, which "lost you" ? lol.

Chet Dembeck said...
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fysisist said...

The Ft. Riley alien body account definitely sounds fictional, as does much of Corso's story. Having been in the military, and also working in the defense industry with secret clearance for many years, am I to accept the story as Corso tells it? A wooden crate in the middle of a darkened hanger or warehouse, with a lone NCO guarding it in the middle of the night?? Really?? And an old filing cabinet full of alien technology?? Seriously?? I don't buy it. I have no idea why this apparently well-respected man decided to tell this outlandish story, but I think that it just adds more incredulity to the UFO/ET question.