Reactions to the debunking of MJ-12

SPECIAL RELEASE:MSF REACTS TO CSICOPDEBUNKING OF MJ-12      ParaNet
Alpha 0826 -- The Moore-Shandera-Friedman Research Project (MSF)
is valiantly battling back against charges that the Majestic-12
documents, released by the team in April, are fraudulent. The charges
were raised in a press release issued by CSICOP on August 20th
[MJ12.SR], in which arch-skeptic Phil Klass called the documents
"clumsy counterfeits," and cited a letter from the National Archives
[MJ12DOC6.UFO] which raised doubts about the authenticity of a key
piece of corroborative evidence, the so-called Cutler-to-Twining memo
of July 14, 1954 [MJ12DOC3.UFO].       In an attempt to provide the
opportunity for MSF to answer the objec-tions raised in the press
release, ParaNet has talked with all three mem-bers of the MSF team:
William L. Moore of Burbank, CA, UFO investigator and co-author
of "The Philadelphia Experiment" and "The Roswell Incident" (the
latter detailing a UFO crash in 1947 which stands to be confirmed if
the MJ-12 documents are real); Jaime Shandera of North Hollywood,
CA, an independent television producer who had little to do with
UFOs until team-ing up with Moore in 1981; and Stanton T. Friedman
of New Brunswick, Cana-da, a nuclear physicist and UFO lecturer.
All three members of the team agreed that nothing brought out by
Klass in the release conclusively showed Majestic-12 to be a hoax;
in fact none of the members seemed to acknowledge that any damage
was done whatsoever.      Below are some of the objections raised
by Klass, and selected ans-wers given by the team members.o Item:
Robert Cutler was in Europe at the time the Cutler-to-Twining Memo
was allegedly written.      Friedman: "That's a stupid argument. The
memo wasn't signed by       Cutler. [But] he gave his people
instructions to keep the ball       rolling while he was gone.
"We have two other memos from Cutler to Twining, which we've
gotten at the Library of Congress, one is signed and the other
isn't. The one that's not signed has an `/s/' indicating where
the       original was signed."             Moore: "The absence
of a signature on the document is consistent       with the fact
that Cutler was overseas when it was written. If the       document
had been signed, then we would have reason to worry.       o Item:
The lack of the characteristic "Eagle" watermark found on all of
Cutler's memoranda stationery.       Friedman: "But how many? They
didn't have at the Eisenhower Library       OR the National Archives,
these two Cutler memoranda that we found       at the Library of
Congress! Absence of evidence is not evidence for       absence."
o Item: The lack of a Top-Secret registration number on the
document.      Friedman: "Neither of the other documents we got from
the Library of       Congress had registration numbers, either."
Moore: "NONE of the Top-Secret Cutler memoranda we have seen have
registration numbers."            o Item: The presence of typewriter
key impressions through the back of the document indicates it was
typed as an original, not as a carbon.      Moore: "This just shows
that [Klass] has not done a shred of       original research. He
couldn't have looked at the original. If he       had, he would
have seen that the paper is definitely old, and the       ink on the
paper is blue.             Friedman: "I have trouble with that. The
ink is blue. Who uses blue       typewriter ribbons?"      o Item:
The use of the security classification "Top Secret - Restricted,"
which did not come into use by the NSC until at least a decade
later.      Friedman: "Well, that's what these guys are saying,
but I don't even       know that that's true. `Restricted' can mean
`nobody else sees.'       Also, in that same year of '54, the Atomic
Energy Act brought in the       use of `Secret-Restricted Data' when
you're dealing with anything       nuclear...and Twining obviously
thought there was a nuclear       connection with UFOs because in
a 1947 memo he said all the data       should go to the AEC and the
Nuclear Energy Propulsion Applications       Project." o Item: The
Sept. 24, 1947 letter from Pres. Truman to Secy. Forrestal is not
consistent in format with other Truman letters to Cabinet members.
Moore: "Nonsense. We have a letter from a Congressional historian
that says that the form and style ARE consistent."      o Item:
The Truman letter was created by "superimposing a spurious message
on a photocopy of an authentic Truman letter."      Shandera: "The
35mm film we have of the [Truman] document is very       clear, its a
very good photo. If anything like that had been done,       it would
easily show up."             Moore: "He's dreaming. The evidence is
just the opposite. If you       look at the document on the film,
there are some areas where a       different color ink was probably
used, probably red, which contrast       highly with the rest of the
document. If this were a [composite       photocopy], there wouldn't
be this much contrast."            In the CSICOP press release,
and previously in other media, Klass has said that he has invited
Moore and his associates to "join in his own efforts" to get to the
bottom of the MJ-12 scenario. Moore claims that Klass "has never
extended such an invitation to any one of us."       Moore says
that more information on MJ-12 will be released "toward the end of
September," including a point-by-point response to the objections
raised by Klass in the release. As usual, ParaNet will be the first
computer-based media in the world to carry the story as it unfolds. 


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