Monday, August 29, 2016

"Truth" and MJ-12

So, I was watching Truth, the docudrama about CBS chasing the Bush Air Guard records. I’m not really going to get into the politics of it because I’m sure that we’ll all disagree with one another about that in some way. Instead, I was struck by the investigation into the records and the vetting process, or lack thereof and the story’s similarity to MJ-12.

As most of you know, CBS, on 60 Minutes II, aired a report that President George W. Bush had been given preferential treatment to enter the Air National Guard and had not properly completed his Guard duties once he was clear of the Vietnam War… and I’m sure that many of you know that service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War practically guaranteed a man would not find himself involuntarily in Vietnam so that many of the wealthy and the connected used their influence to ensure their sons would not find themselves on active duty being trained for combat.

According to the story, documents surfaced that suggested that Bush had not properly fulfilled his obligations and that no one had really called him on it. CBS had copies of documents that looked authentic and provided them to a number of questioned document experts who seemed to be divided about their authenticity. CBS talked to the officers whose names surfaced in the documents, or rather some of them, and the talked to others who had some sort of knowledge about them. CBS talked to a general, on the telephone, and read him the documents. His rather lukewarm response was that they sounded right to him.

CBS then went on the air, in a Wednesday 60 Minutes II broadcast, saying they had proof that George Bush had skated out of his military assignment (for those of you without a military background, skated in this context means avoided). Not long after the broadcast it began to look as if the documents might not have been real. Bloggers suggested the fonts were wrong; there was proportional spacing in the documents which wasn’t done on typewriters from the 1970s, and that the superscript in some of the unit names was inaccurate because typewriters couldn’t do that. Enough questions were raised that CBS began to review the whole process that lead to the story.

Here’s where the UFO connection comes in and for those of you who have been following the great MJ-12 debate, you’ll recognize some of this. One of the first things discussed was that they didn’t have the originals. They were dealing with copies so that it was difficult, if not impossible to properly analyze the documents. Questioned documents experts said they needed the originals so that they could analyze the ink and paper and study other aspects for their examination and two of them suggested that CBS contact Peter Tytell, who, as you all might remember, did the original work on MJ-12. The experts couldn’t validate the copies. As I have heard many times in the past, all forgeries have some mechanism to explain why the original is not available. Examination of the original often reveals the fraudulent nature of a document.

CBS went back to the man (Bill Burkett) who had given them the package in the first place, and in a tale that might have been written by Bill Moore, Burkett said that he had received a telephone call about this, telling him to call a hotel between certain hours and ask for a specific room. This apparently set up some sort of clandestine meeting. While in Houston at a livestock auction, Burkett was handed a package by some unidentified, “dark-skinned” person. Instructions in that package said to copy the documents and then burn the originals… to remove the possibility of tracing the leak through DNA. The originals no longer exist and to be fair to CBS, it seems that the person who gave them the documents had lied about how he came into possession of them prior to the broadcast and only told this cockamamie story after it, when questioned again about how he had obtained the documents.

As all this unraveled, CBS began an internal investigation. While it seems that there was nothing nefarious about the investigation prior to the story, some red flags were ignored, and it does seem that there were misunderstandings and leads that weren’t followed… or, to my way of thinking, the documents were taking them to a place they wanted to go so they were less than enthusiastic in following the leads that might go somewhere else. For example, from this docudrama, there was no evidence that they FOIAed any of the records from St. Louis which might have provided them with another source and a much better provenance than they had. Nor did they seem to attempt to get copies of the documents from the Texas Air Guard, but by the time of the CBS investigation, those documents might have been destroyed, lost, or in some other way unavailable. Some of the documents that they had copies of might have been found in Texas Air Guard records which would have been a nice verification from an official organization that the documents were pristine.

At the end of the CBS investigation, Mary Mapes, the producer of the story and apparently the only one fired over it (others, such as Dan Rather, resigned), made a statement to the men investigating the fiasco. In words that seem to mirror some of the arguments about MJ-12, she said that the forger would have had to know the lingo of the time, the jargon used by the Texas Air Guard, the names of the various, and often obscure officers (she didn’t use the term obscure, but I believe that is what was meant), would have to know the format of the letters, memos, reports, and other documents so that they would appear authentic. To her, it was just impossible for the forger to have had the access needed, the time to investigate the history of the Air Guard, to get the relationships between the officers correct, and know many other, subtle details…

And she would have been right if not for something we all have learned from the MJ-12 boondoggle. All the forger actually needed was access to documents, which, given the way these things work, might well have been in the hands of a single, retired officer (in this case a man named Jerry Killian). Once those documents were in hand, it was just a matter of retyping them, inserting a line or two that contained the critical information, and he now had a document that seemed to verify the accusations against Bush that contained the jargon, contained the proper names, and contained the relationships among the various officers and organizations mentioned. The only way to break this would be to locate the originals that might have been stuck in some dusty file somewhere, but that more than likely had been thrown out long ago.

It didn’t seem as if they attempted to find originals… they talked to people who were there at the time, and whose stories seemed to change. The retired general, Robert Hodges, who had been read the documents during a telephone conversation, said after the program aired and he had a chance to actually see them, that the documents were faked. And he had talked to the family of the man (Killian) who had supposedly signed them. The family said they were fakes.

But the real red flag should have been the source that handed the documents to them. They could trace them no farther. He was retired Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett who claimed the documents had come from Bush’s commanding officer, the late Lieutenant  Colonel Jerry B. Killian. That meant that Killian was not available to attest to the validity of the documents, and as mentioned, Barnes admitted to lying to CBS and burning the original documents. Burkett, who seemed to be bitter about his Guard service and treatment in retirement, had also asked to be put in touch with someone in the Kerry presidential campaign, which should have also raised a red flag. Not to mention that Burkett had been shopping around the story about Bush’s failure to meet his obligations since 2000.

And, in a very telling statement in the docudrama, which I don’t know was made by any of those at CBS for real, one of those involved in the research for CBS said that had Mary Mapes’ mother not died in 2000, when she first began to investigate the story, then Gore might have been president… or in other words, CBS News would have influenced the election with a tale that they could not prove was accurate when push came to shove.

As I say, I don’t want to get into the politics of this thing but I find the parallels between the research into MJ-12 and the investigation of these documents to have the same problems. MJ-12 is traceable only to Bill Moore and the Bush documents only to Burkett. Those who could verify them are all conveniently dead and both sets of documents suffer from the same lack of provenance. I would suggest that anyone interested in MJ-12 and how that whole sorry mess has evolved, watch Truth and see the same sorts of errors being made by those who are supposed to be the best at what they do. In both cases, those wanting the documents to be real should have taken a step back and asked some very basic questions. Both are examples of how not to investigate questioned documents.

PS: I haven’t compared this to the Not Roswell Slides, but there certainly is a parallel there as well. For those interested in reading more Burkett and the documents, see:


15 comments:

Mr. Sweepy said...

Kevin,

This is not about this article to begin with.

I was looking at a fairly new CIA string of documents starting from Nov. 1947.

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/1947-11-03.pdf

There was a small nugget I was looking for and about. This was Senator Dennis Chavez, New Mexico. This Senator was the only US Senator mention but wasn't a senior senator in terms of years of leadership in 47. Yet he gets in to the Dir. of the CIA for a meeting? Minor point but thought you might like to read this.

Thanks,
Craig

Graham said...

Two of the major rules for passing a hoaxed document are:

1. Make sure that the original is not available for study.

2. Make sure it confirms beliefs already held by the people it is being passed to.

Because the name of the game is to ensure that at the critical moment no one is really looking at what they are reading. At least one Lincon assassination conspiracy theory is based on documents which purport to be copies of destroyed originals.

Seal Of Lion said...

My wife, who is from a family of newspaper men, has read about this fiasco and said that CBS screwed this up every which way they can. No one can ever be sure just what happened with Bush and the ANG.

Unrelated question... Is "Seeds of War" and "The Aldebaran Campaign" ever going to come out in digital? I've worn out the paperbacks twice.

Mr. Sweepy said...

To me, the worse part about this Killian guy is he was going after a innocent man that was still alive. Set-aside the fact Bush was running for President. Innocent and honest people are always easy targets.

Just like the Roswell witnesses who were told they would be killed buried out in the New Mexico desert, they too were innocent and honest who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

KRandle said...

Craig -

It wasn't Killian. His name is on the documents, but there is no evidence that these documents were authentic. The real villain was Bill Burkett who was shopping the documents to various news agencies, the Democratic Party and the Kerry campaign. By the time this story takes place, that is during the 2004 campaign, Jerry Killian had died.

Mr. Sweepy said...

Kevin,

Many pardons. I simply wrote in the incorrect name. My mistake.
Craig

KRandle said...

All -

For another take on this that seems to go beyond the 2004 fiasco, see:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/truth-or-consequences/

james tankersley said...

Kevin i am not trying to burden you with the same MJ-12 stuff that has been known for years now, but i came across some interesting material about this control group in a book called THE BLUE PLANET PROJECT by Anonymous ( published by Gil Carlson ) that describes who this group was and what not and it was MAJORITY 12 that was handling all the alien/ crashed saucer material, not MAJESTIC 12, and there are many code words given in this book i think you should look at here since you have served in the military, and thus would know more about this type of subject than most other researchers in this field would. there are other books in this vein as well that coincide with the subject of this book as well, and its pretty amazing what Gil Carlson has discovered. i cant wait to get your new book ROSWELL IN THE 21st CENTURY as you are the most objective writer out there without all the spin.

KRandle said...

All -

And still another take on this:

http://dailysignal.com/2015/10/30/the-truth-about-dan-rathers-deceptive-reporting-on-george-w-bush/

James -

The term "Majority" for the MJ-12 has been around for years. I think the first reference was by Bill Cooper, but if it had surfaced somewhere else first, I'm sure someone would let us know.

james tankersley said...

Kevin i made a mistake on my last post and i apologize for that. the name of the control group who handled all the TOP SECRET alien materials and UFO crash info according to this book THE BLUE PLANET PROJECT was OPERATION MAJORITY not MAJORITY 12. I hope you check this book out and see if all the different code words that concern the CIA, NSA, and what not make any sense to you as when you look at all the alleged UFO crashes that have occurred over the years, the years, dates they happened are also given.

Mr. Sweepy said...

Kevin,

Over the months, I have been doing some research and a ton of reading. I came upon this document and talks a lot about Hap Arnold and how he developed a Dewey Decimal System for the military.

http://rs5.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/1996/ms996005.pdf

The Military File series is the largest in the collection and is extremely rich with material on all aspects of American military air activity in World War II: mobilization, organization, supply, weaponry, training, personnel, strategy, command, intelligence, and technology. Only the official records of the army air force exceed in abundance the resources offered by the Arnold papers for the study of American air warfare in World War II. Much of the material in the Military File series consists of copies of official records which can be found at the National Archives. What gives this collection research interest is that it consists of copies of those documents that Arnold or his staff regarded as of sufficient significance to cull from the flood of paper that passed through his office during World War II. In the Military File, the first subseries, entitled the Decimal File, 1940-1945, consists of military documents, messages, correspondence, memoranda, and reports filed in accordance with a decimal filing system (similar to the Dewey decimal system) used by the army during World War II. Access to the material in these files in best sought by use of two card-file indexes. The first index is alphabetical by the name of an individual connected to the documents. The index gives the decimal files in which documents by or about that person can be found. The second index is alphabetical by subject, institution, or organization. The indexes are detailed, with the name index taking up containers 39-46 and the subject index containers 47-60. In addition to the decimal designation, some of the decimal files also have subject matter titles which have been included in the container listing of the Arnold Papers. The Message File subseries consists of incoming and outgoing official cables and other messages between Arnold's
headquarters and other offices during World War II. Most messages are filed alphabetically by subject, office, or the name of a frequent correspondent, Dwight Eisenhower, for example. This subseries also contains a chronological file of Arnold's incoming and outgoing messages filed under his name. The Official File subseries includes military reports, memoranda, correspondence, and other documents designated by files numbered 1-287 and 516-540. Files 1-210 have subject matter titles in alphabetical order while files numbered 211-287
have geographic area titles in alphabetical order along with a few files for non-geographic military commands, ferrying command, for example. Files numbered 516-540 contain a variety of reports, logs, and extensive documentation deriving from the investigation of the Pearl Harbor attack and the role of the army air force in that disaster. Indexes are available for both of these numbered sequences. Files numbered 288-515 are not extant in the Arnold Papers.


Note... this goes on within Hap's filing system with category and how things were cataloged.

This creates two questions. First in your research and others research, did you see anything from the FIOA documents that had digital type coding on the documents you did receive?

My second question would be at some point in the late 40's or early 50's after computers came into play, do you think this system was replaced?

The question somewhat becomes, did the UFO documents you and the other research exist but where titled under a Dewey Decimal System instead of a oblivious title name? Example... Roswell fight log to Ft. Worth might have been called 50947.1111 or some code system like that?



james tankersley said...

i don't know for absolutely certain how i feel about MJ-12 except i am 50-50 about whether there was such a control group by that name, only it was NOT the one pulling all the strings, but yes these men could have all been involved in the cover up for understandable NATIONAL SECURITY REASONS and FEAR OF PUBLIC PANIC, especially back then in the early to mid 40s, when the military, the Air Force and the United States Government were suddenly faced with something they did not know how to deal with plus the crashes(?) of unknown kinds of craft made of equally unknown kinds of materials flown by strange big bug eyed small creatures that are evidently quite obviously NOT of this earth so that would mean they had to come from another planet! there are hints about all this all over the place, and given our VERY corrupt political climate we find ourselves in these frustrating days, i am not at all surprised in the slightest that no one has been able to genuinely 100% prove such a group existed or any such code words have not been found on legitimate Top Secret documents as of yet. Well i don't think anyone will be able to find anything because it is becoming very obvious that those documents, if indeed some of them were real as Stanton Friedman, Bob and his son Ryan wood believe and yes i too am becoming a believer because of all the hints, have been DESTROYED WITH NO PAPER TRAIL LEFT and quite possibly along with the complete file of what really happened at Roswell. This is the ultimatum of our very corrupt political times and i only hope i am wrong...........

Mr. Sweepy said...

James,

My comment was not really about MJ-12 (which I am on negative side of the discussion) but a method created by Hap Arnold to create a index system. His system was to help keep track of what was happening in WWII. This system was carried to some extent until the late 40's and likely 50's when the computer system came into play.

The only documents are really have been produced of any quality of UFO events came before the computer database era was created. My belief is that there are still boxes of documents like Hap Arnold's that still might exist. For example Arnold had a box of classified information named "CL1" Post-military file, circa 1946-1949. When you go through the index system, in most cases, next to nothing is known what is in this box. There are virtually tons of boxes, files, and films.

james tankersley said...

no disrespect to you intended, i was merely making a comment about my thoughts about this on-going MJ-12 controversy that is still with us and sees no sign of dying out anytime soon and for good reason. i still strongly believe that what fell from the sky in Roswell was of alien origin, and why it is still being covered up and what better way would they be than destroying the complete paper trail so no one will ever know? also i think William Moore may have gotten some genuine sensitive Top Secret documents from CIA sources but he did himself disservice and his research by passing along disinformation and mindless propaganda that did NOTHING but cloud the issues and muddy the waters further than he expected. no one has proven MJ-12 didn't exist, only that those kind of documents have not been found that would verify their authenticity which will never happen because i think that paper trail has been totally destroyed so no one can ever find it.

james tankersley said...

Craig, no disrespect to you was intended. i was merely making my thoughts known as to how i feel about this on-going MJ-12 controversy that sees no sign of dying out anytime soon, and for good reason. i still strongly believe that what fell from the sky in Roswell was of alien in origin and if it had been terrestrial in origin the Air Force would have released that kind of docomtation years ago without having to come forward with the unsupported silly explanations that make no sense no matter what the skeptics say. i think William Moore may have actually gotten some genuine sensitive TOP SECRET documents from CIA sources but did himself and his research great disservice by passing along disinformation and as a result has clouded the issue and muddied the waters further than he probably expected. no one has been able to positively prove that MJ-12 did not exist. only that no one thus far has been able to find those kinds of documents and their code words. i also think that the supposed book that William Moore was expecting to write was written by Whitley Strieber himself instead and was about the Roswell crash in fictional terms which was titled MAJIC and it was based on the true story of the UFO crash and the MJ-12 documents. bear in mind i cant prove this, only i suspect that after reading the book.