______________________________________________________________________ ***PLEASE CIRCULATE*PLEASE COPY*PLEASE SIGN THE ROSWELL-DECLARATION*** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THE INTERNATIONAL ROSWELL INITIATIVE - UPDATE FEBRUARY 10, 1995 An Open Letter to All Those With an Interest in the UFO Phenomenon: There is presently a large-scale movement underway in the United States to persuade the U.S. government to share what it knows about UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence with its citizens and the people of the world. The effort is known as the "International Roswell Initiative" and has the joint support of the three largest and most respected UFO organizations in the United States -- the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), and the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR). Because government suppression and withholding of information on this subject is a universal concern, organizations in several European countries, including Great Britain and Germany, have joined the effort in an unprecedented show of unity. This letter is an invitation to organizations and people throughout the world with an interest in the UFO phenomenon to join this unified, worldwide movement to end government secrecy on the UFO issue once and for all. Although definitive answers are being sought on what the government knows about all aspects of the UFO phenomenon, the focus of the effort is the 1947 Roswell incident, one of the best-documented UFO cases in history. The Roswell event involved the recovery of unusual debris from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, a press release from the U.S. military stating that a "crashed disk" (UFO) had been recovered, and a subsequent denial by the military claiming that the debris was really only the misidentified remains of a weather balloon. Credible military and civilian witnesses who were directly involved have testified that the weather balloon story is false. The strategy of the Roswell Initiative is to collect as many signed copies as possible of a one-page document, the Roswell Declaration. The Declaration contains a request for an Executive Order from the President of the United States to declassify any government-held information regarding the existence of UFOs or extraterrestrial intelligence. The Declaration is not an endorsement of a position or belief, but rather, a request for a change in the law -- a change that would mandate a policy of openness and candor on the part of the government. Such a policy would far better reflect the will of the people than the present government policy of secrecy, suppression, and denial. On a yet-to-be-determined date (probably sometime in 1995), signed copies of the Roswell Declaration will be delivered to the U.S. President and all members of Congress. On the same day, UFO organizations throughout the world will deliver signed copies of the Roswell Declaration to the American embassies in their respective countries. (Organizers in Great Britain also plan to deliver copies to both Houses of Parliament.) The objective will be to draw credible media and public attention to the Roswell matter and to the need for a more open and honest government policy concerning the UFO phenomenon in general. Public and media pressure can be a key factor in bringing about change in government policy. The Roswell Declaration was published in April 1994 in the journals of both the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies and the Mutual UFO Network. The Fund for UFO Research subsequently included a copy of the Declaration with its quarterly newsletter. In July, a copy of the Roswell Declaration was mailed to the members of the Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE), an organization consisting of more than 400 scientists throughout the world. The cover letter for the SSE mailing was written by Robert M. Wood, Ph.D., a member of the board of directors of the SSE, and a strong advocate of the Roswell Initiative. Dr. Wood holds a doctorate degree in physics and is a recently retired executive of McDonnell Douglas Corporation. In October, the Roswell Declaration and an accompanying story were published in Omni magazine (U.S. circulation, 713,000). The Declaration has also been published in UFO magazine and International UFO Library magazine. It has been placed on a number of computer bulletin boards, as well as on America Online and the Internet, making it available worldwide. Overseas, the Roswell Declaration has been translated into several languages, and a significant number of signed, foreign Declarations have already been received. The Declaration has been featured in publications abroad, including the official government newspaper of Russia, Izvestia (circulation 1.2 million), which published a full-length story about Roswell and the Roswell Declaration in its September 14, 1994, edition. Other foreign publications have also expressed interest in the Roswell Initiative. Polls have shown that the majority of people believe in the possible existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence. There is, without question, a universal interest in this subject and a strong desire to know the truth. The Roswell Declaration provides a vehicle to galvanize that interest and that desire for the truth into a large-scale grassroots movement. So far, the response has been overwhelming. Declarations have been received from people representing all walks of life and all age groups. Omni magazine recently received a box of 800 Roswell Declarations from a high school in New Hampshire, where the students had made it a class project to collect signed Declarations. Overall, more than 15,000 signed Roswell Declarations had been received as of January 1995, including hundreds from scientists and engineers. People want to know the truth! In the United States, public awareness of the Roswell event continues to increase. A number of respectable books on the subject are available, and several mainstream network television shows have featured segments on Roswell, including ABC's Good Morning America and CBS's 48 Hours. A major television movie, Roswell, aired on the Showtime network last year and received a Golden Globe nomination for best television movie. The movie is now available on video and will likely be shown on network television and in Europe sometime this summer. Additionally, the Roswell Declaration has been mentioned on three national television programs (including a Larry King special on October 1, 1994), as well as on a number of radio talk shows. At the request of New Mexico Congressman Steven Schiff, the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) is now conducting an inquiry into the Roswell case. In addition to overseeing fiscal matters, the GAO has the authority to investigate whether proper reporting procedures have been followed by government agencies. While the GAO's inquiry into the Roswell matter is a step in the right direction, it is doubtful whether its investigators will be able to gain access to the information on Roswell if the Air Force -or whatever other agency holds the information -- wants to keep it secret. It may be a year or more before the GAO reports its findings to Congressman Schiff. On September 8, 1994, in reaction to public and political pressure, and in what Newsweek magazine called a "preemptive strike," the Air Force issued its first official statement on Roswell in 47 years-- a 23-page report stating that the "most likely" source of the Roswell debris was a balloon from a secret program known as Project Mogul. The purpose of Project Mogul was to detect Soviet nuclear tests by using sensitive instruments carried aloft by high-altitude balloons. Contrary to the impression that the Air Force wishes to convey to the public, the conclusion of the 1994 Air Force report represents little change from the original weather balloon cover story issued in 1947. The neoprene (rubber) balloons and radar reflectors used in Project Mogul were the same type used in meteorological observation flights during that time period. The primary difference was that while the weather observation flights generally used a single 350-gram, four- foot-diameter balloon and a light-weight radar reflector (made from balsa wood sticks and reflective foil), the Project Mogul flights used an array of 350-gram balloons and light-weight radar reflectors, and carried different instruments. In effect, a downed Project Mogul balloon should have been no more puzzling to those who found it than a common weather balloon. It is very important to note that the Air Force report is nothing but speculation, as its conclusion is not backed by files or records specifically documenting the Mogul hypothesis. In reality, it confirmed nothing. Considering the government's penchant for keeping records, it seems incredible that Air Force researchers were unable to produce official records or files showing any of the following significant events: 1) the recovery of the material from the Brazel ranch by U.S. military officers who were acting in an official capacity; 2) the alleged "mis- analysis" of that material as a crashed UFO by officers of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell -a mis-analysis which led to a press release that resulted in spectacular headlines in 30 U.S. newspapers; 3) the transportation of the recovered material from Roswell Army Air Field to Fort Worth Army Air Field by military personnel using military aircraft; 4) the re-analysis of the material at Eighth Air Force headquarters; 5) the highly publicized announcement of the result of that re-analysis at a specially called press conference by the commander of the Eighth Air Force, General Roger Ramey; 7) the ultimate disposition of the recovered material (i.e., the return of the remains of the alleged "Mogul balloon" and its instruments to the Project Mogul team at Alamogordo, New Mexico); and 8) a log entry by the Project Mogul team acknowledging that one of their balloons had been recovered near Roswell by the Eighth Air Force. No official records of any of these events exist, despite the fact that the "crashed disk" press release from the 509th Bomb Group and the subsequent "weather balloon" explanation by Eighth Air Force headquarters constituted one of the biggest U.S. military public relations fiascoes ever! To those familiar with the Roswell evidence, the 1994 Air Force report is not convincing, much less definitive. The research behind it was neither objective nor complete. Many key Roswell witnesses, such as General Arthur Exon, Glenn Dennis, and Jesse Marcel, Jr., M.D., all of whose testimony would have directly contradicted the Air Force's conclusion, were not interviewed. It is difficult to imagine that such blatant omissions were accidental. Because much of the mainstream media accepted the Air Force report at face value and dutifully reported its conclusions as fact, the report has resulted in a temporary public relations setback for the campaign to get to the truth on the Roswell matter. However, due to its lack of objectivity, a selective presentation of the facts, and a highly prejudiced point of view, the Air Force report could ultimately backfire and, ironically, become a factor in ending the coverup.