home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- 31 AUG. '89
-
- Bill English
- UFINET
- POBX 0123
- Alamogordo, Nm 88311
-
- Dear Bill:
-
- Thank you for sending me a copy of "Pegasus", Aside from the
- material about me on page one, I was most interested in the
- pledges you make in your "policy Statement" which appears on page
- three--especially those you make about using "factual
- information" and "not allow(ing) character assassination."
-
- I do not know why you seem to harbor so many negative feelings
- about me, or what I may have done to offend you. Whatever it is,
- you certainly seem to be very hot under the collar about it.
- However, I did note in listening to a tape of your Las Vegas
- speech that you made a distinct call for unity and an end to the
- in-fighting in the UFO field. You will recall that I made a
- similar statement in my presentation. On the strength of that,
- added to the fact (as least as I recall it) we once got along
- quite well, I would like once again to propose that we put aside
- past differences and try to work together, I hope you will give
- this your serious consideration.
-
- Now with respect to the piece on page one of your newsletter, I
- cannot imagine who the (anonymous and obviously second-hand)
- source of you information might be, but I can tell you first hand
- that it is completely erroneous. My interaction with Mr.
- Bennewitz was as stated in my Las Vegas presentation. In
- addition, on a number of different occasions I was accompanied on
- my visits to him by other individuals who, I am sure, would be
- more than happy to verify that fact if necessary. One particular
- occasion, which you can easily check if you wish, occurred in
- 1984 when I and one other person were visiting with Paul in his
- office. I had been there about twenty minutes when Tracy Torme,
- Tom Adams and one other individual whose name I do not recall
- walked in. They were quite surprised to seemed; I was quite
- surprised to see them; and Paul seemed quite amused by it all.
- Ask Tracy or Tom about it. I am certain they will recall the
- incident. You might also talk to Gabe Valdez, who knew as early
- as `81 or `82 that Paul and I were acquainted.
-
- Furthermore you seem to have misinterpreted what I said at Vegas
- about the role I was playing in the Bennewitz affair. Therefore,
- I wish to offer the following three corrections to the material
- printed in your newsletter:
- (1) You state that I "met and knew Paul Bennewitz in the latter
- part of 1979." This is incorrect. Please refer to page 5,
- paragraph 2, and page 6, paragraph 2 of the text of my paper (as
- printed in FOCUS, Vol.IV #4-5-6: 30 JUN. `89) for clarification.
- Page 6, para 2 clearly states. "I first met Paul in early
- 1981..." (If you haven't got a copy of the text, let me know and
- I'll be happy to send you one.
- (2) You state that I was instrumental in feeding Bennewitz mis-
- information (sic.)." Not true. Once again, refer to page 6,
- paragraph 2 of my text, which states. "My role in the affair was
- largely that of a freelancer providing information on Paul's
- current thinking and activities. I had nothing whatsoever to do
- with the counterintelligence and the dis-information...."
- (3) You state that I was partly the reason for Paul's
- involuntary committal to the New Mexico State Mental Hospital."
- This is both untrue and erroneous on its face. First of all, if
- Paul was ever involuntarily committed to a state mental hospital
- I am completely unaware of it. My statement (page 8, para. 1,
- bottom) was "Not long afterward I heard that he had been
- hospitalized and was under psychiatric care." The hospital as I
- understood it, was a local facility, not a mental hospital or
- institution, and Paul had not been "committed". He was simply
- under the care of a psychiatrist. Secondly, you will note in the
- same paragraph cited above, I clearly state that I tried to
- counsel Paul to drop his UFO activities before they completely
- destroyed his health. Indeed, I genuinely liked Paul, resented
- what "they" were doing to him, and did everything I could (short
- of blowing my own cover) to get him to realize that he was the
- object of an extensive counterintelligence game. The fact is,
- Paul already knew that. Somehow I think much of his problem came
- from his unflagging belief that if he stayed with it long enough,
- truth as he saw it would somehow triumph over deception.
-
- As far as my motivations in making the statement I did in Las
- Vegas, I think the time has come to blow the whistle on
- government disinformation about UFOs and provide some much needed
- counterpoint to the Lear-Cooper material. One of the key points
- in that mess, at least to me, was that I was able to establish a
- direct connection between one of Lear's "confidential" sources
- and the very same office in Washington that was responsible for
- directing much of the effort against Bennewitz. That, coupled
- with the fact that much of Lear's material was an embellished
- regurgitation of the same fluff they fed Paul, told me what I
- needed to know about Lear. As for Cooper-- he's highly a
- intelligent individual who is very good at taking in material
- from a variety of sources and embellishing it to suit his
- purposes. In my opinion, he's either a clever opportunist who's
- taking advantage of the Lear situation and the general paranoia
- of the UFO community to try and make himself look more important
- than he really is, or he's a C/I man whose specialty is
- deception. My present thinking is that the former is more likely
- the case simply because his methodology doesn't fit the latter
- type at all. Also, if you take the trouble to compare his
- earlier pronouncements with those he is making currently, you
- will discover a host of inconsistencies; which, at the very
- least, calls his ultimate credibility into serious question.
-
- Government disinformation about UFOs has been going on for a long
- time. My goal is to try to stop it by exposing it to the public,
- and at the same time, uncover what is behind it. What I did in
- Las Vegas began the first part of this process. There will be
- more to come. The next issue of FOCUS (circulation now about 500
- and growing fast) will carry more.
-
- In any case, congratulations and best wishes on "Pegasus" and
- your UFINET project. I hope you will print this letter in an
- upcoming issue in order to correct the mistakes cited above. I
- also sincerely hope you will take another look at the animosity
- you seem to harbor against me, and see if there isn't some way we
- can cooperate. After all, we both do have a common purpose,
- please let me hear from you in the near future.
- cordially,