Encounters: The UFO Phenomenon, Exposed!/Encounters - The UFO Phenomenon, Exposed (1995).iso/roswell/roswel20.txt

Text File | 1995-10-20 | 15KB | 342 lines

Article from "The Washington Post" - Page 21, The Federal Page -
January 14th, 1994 edition.

=========================================================

GAO Turns to Alien Turf in Probe

Bodies of Space Voyagers Said to Have Disappeared in 1947

----------------------------------------------------------
            By William Claiborne
           Washington Post Staff Writer
----------------------------------------------------------

  Where television's "Unsolved Mysteries" has tried and failed, the
General Accounting Office is unafraid to venture.

  At the request of Rep. Steven Schiff (R-N.M), Congress's investigative
branch has launched a study to determine whether the government
covered up a story alleging that the bodies of alien space voyagers
were removed from a crashed flying saucer found near Roswell, N.M., in
1947.

  After the purported crash of the spacecraft, the bodies of the
extraterrestrial visitors were said by a local undertaker and other
conspiracy theorists to have been autopsied and secretly flown to an
Air Force base in Ohio.

  Even though the "Roswell Incident" has been repeatedly dismissed by
the Defense Department as nothing more than UFO fantasizing triggered
by the discovery of a downed weather balloon, the GAO has begun
searching for documents to prove allegations that the Air Force
"suppressed" information sought by Schiff.

  Schiff is a member of the House Government Operations Committee, which
oversees the GAO.

  GOA spokeswoman Laura A. Kopelson said the office's investigation,
first reported in the Albuquerque Journal yesterday, stemmed from a
meeting in October between Schiff and GAO Controller General Charles
A. Bowsher. Schiff complained then that the Defense Department had
been "unresponsive" to his inquiries about the 1947 incident.

  Kopelson said "as far as I know only one investigator had been
assigned" to the case, and that not enough work had been done to
report any results to Schiff. At another point, Kopelson said "the
people doing it are either on sick leave or are unavailable."

  She said there was no way of estimating how much the investigation
would cost, and that the GAO does not release such information anyway.

  GAO conducted 1,380 inquiries into government operations in 1992. Its
budget has risen from $46.9 million in 1965 to $490 million last year.
The agency has been criticized, especially by Republicans, as the "lap
dog of the requester," producing reports that tend to support whatever
conclusions the requesting member of Congress suggests.

  Kopelson said Schiff had asked the GAO "to see if there is any
evidence that information regarding UFOs had been suppressed"
following the Roswell incident.

  Schiff, however, said that at a routine October meeting he had merely
complained about the Defense Department's lack of responsiveness but a
GAO official said "We're willing to take a stab at it."

  Schiff, in a telephone interview from Albuquerque, said that last
March, after receiving inquiries from "UFO believers" and some Roswell
residents who were in the military in 1947, he wrote Defense Secretary
Les Aspin asking for more information about the reported spacecraft
crash and the alleged disappearance of the aliens' bodies.


  The crash of a mysterious object 75 miles northwest of Roswell, which
the Air Force later claimed was a weather balloon equipped with a
radar-reflecting device, was the subject of several books and remains
many UFO buffs greatest riddle.

  A privately owned museum in Roswell contains a number of documents and
photographs purporting to prove existence of the aliens. It also
displays a re-creation of the spacecraft surrounded by figures
portraying the dead extraterrestrials.

  UFO buffs contend the incident marked the beginning of a government
conspiracy to suppress eveidence of alien life.

  Much of the speculation stems from claims by William Haut, a former
Air Force public affairs officer, who said that on July 2, 1947, he
was told to prepare a news release reporting the Air Force had
recovered parts of a flying saucer and then was told to change the
story to report a weather balloon.

  Also, a nurse reportedly told a local funeral home director that she
witnessed the autopsies of the spacemen, whom she described as having
oversize heads and beetle-like features. The nurse subsequently died
in a plane crash.

  After the autopsies, conspiracy theorists said the bodies were flown
to Fort Worth and then to what is now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
in Ohio.

  In 1989, NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" investigated the controversy,
which the host, Robert Stack, concluded remained unsolved.

  Schiff said that after calling Aspin last March to request a Defense
Department briefing on the Roswell incident, he received a call from
an Air Force lieutenant colonel, who brusquely told him the documents
had been turned over to the National Archives.

  However, Schiff said, the Archives officials told him they did not
have the records on Roswell, even though they did have records of
"Project Blue Book," a 1969 Air Force study of reported UFO sightings.
That study, Schiff said, did not deal with the Roswell case.

  "I was getting pretty upset at all the running around," Schiff said,
adding that at his meeting with GAO officials, "they made an offer to
help."

  "Generally, I'm a skeptic on UFOs and alien beings, but there are
indications from the run-around that I got that whatever it was, it
wasn't a balloon. Apparently, it's another government coverup," Schiff
said.

  He called the Defense Department's lack of response "astounding," and
said government accountability was an issue "even larger than UFOs."

  Asked if the GAO might not be extending itself, Schiff acknowledged
that the agency "usually does fiscal investigations and at present I
can't find a fiscal impact" in the Roswell incident.

  Had the agency said, " 'This is beyond our realm of expertise,' "
Schiff said, "I wouldn't insist on it." He added, "If the Defense
Department had been responsive, it wouldn't have come to this."

** End of article **

--
Don Allen - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
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From [e-mail] (Michael Corbin) Tue Jan 18 14:37:07 1994
Path: igor.rutgers.edu!newsserver.jvnc.net!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!decwrl!decwrl!amd!netcomsv!netcomsv!netcomsv!scicom!paranet!p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG!Michael.Corbin
From: [e-mail] (Michael Corbin)
Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo
Subject: Wright-pat Aliens?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 18 Jan 94 19:37:07 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (newsout1.26)
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Lines: 58


 * Forwarded from "Alt.Alien.Visitors"
 * Originally by Alan Eldridge
 * Originally to All
 * Originally dated 16 Jan 1994, 15:44

From: [e-mail] (Alan Eldridge)
Date: 15 Jan 94 06:12:00 GMT
Organization: Dragon BBS [phone], [phone]
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors


 * Carbons Sent to: all

>From 'The Dayton Daily News', Saturday, Jan 15, 1994

Wright-Pat says rumors of aliens are ungrounded
Associated Press

   A Wright-Patterson Air Force Base spokesman said
Friday that the base never has been a storage area for
extraterrestrials or alien aircraft.
   Wright-Pat spokesman Bobbie Mixon responded to
a congressman's request that the investigative arm of
Congress look into the possibility of a goverment cover-
up related to the 1947 crash of a flying object in New Mexico,
   U.S. Rep. Steve Schiff, R-N.M., made the request to the
General Accounting Office.
   The crash occurred on July 2, 1947, near the ranching
community of Corona, N.M.
   The Air Force said the wreckage came from a weather
balloon with a radar-reflecting device.
   Other people said that the device was a flying saucer
and that goverment teams whisked away the wreckage and
perhaps the bodies of aliens. They said debris from the
crash was taken first to Fort Worth, Texas, then to what
is now Wright-Patterson.

                        ### 30 ###

Wright-Pat (military nickname 'Right Pitiful') is only 35 driving
miles 'up the road' from here.
No other editorial comments, but this seemed worthy of note.

... To err is human, to moo Bovine.
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

--
Michael Corbin - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name
INTERNET: [e-mail]
======================================================================
Inquiries regarding ParaNet, or mail directed to Michael Corbin, should
be sent to: [e-mail].  Or you can phone voice at 303-429-2654/
Michael Corbin
Director
ParaNet Information Services

From [e-mail] (Michael Corbin) Tue Jan 18 14:38:08 1994
Path: igor.rutgers.edu!newsserver.jvnc.net!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!olivea!hal.com!decwrl!amd!netcomsv!netcomsv!netcomsv!scicom!paranet!p0.f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG!Michael.Corbin
From: [e-mail] (Michael Corbin)
Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo
Subject: Roswell Incident Revisited
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 18 Jan 94 19:38:08 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (newsout1.26)
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 * Forwarded from "Alt.Alien.Visitors"
 * Originally by Vincent J. Murphy
 * Originally to All
 * Originally dated 17 Jan 1994, 19:57

From: [e-mail] (Vincent J. Murphy)
Date: 17 Jan 94 15:54:53 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC
Message-ID: <2heccd$[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors


     Here we go again: another excellent waste of time and
resources. :)


   (Reprinted w/o permission from The Albuquerque Journal (1/13/94)

    SCHIFF REOPENS UFO CASE

   Agency Takes New Look at 'Roswell Incident'
   -------------------------------------------
   By Steve Brewer (Staff writer, Albuquerque Journal)

  It's been more than 46 years now, and Rep. Steve Schiff thinks it's high
 time the federal government came clean on whether space aliens crashed their
 flying saucer in New Mexico.

  The Albuquerque Republican has asked the General Accounting Office to
 investigate whether a government cover-up followed the crash of a mysterious
 object near the little ranch town of Corona on July 2, 1947.  ANd the GAO,
 Congress' investigative arm, has begun a probe.

  "It's not a light thing to ask a government agency to look into something,
 but the government has been accused of a cover-up," Schiff said Wednesday.
 The congressman admitted he's curious about the incident, but added, "I
 would not not ask for an investigation of something I was just curious about.
 The issue is whether the government is being forthright with the American
 people, and that is a serious issue with me."

  The 1947 crash, known as the "Roswell Incident" because it happened about
 75 miles northwest of Roswell, has been the focus of UFO books and buffs
 for years.  They claima flying saucer crashed on a ranch owned by Mac Brazel,
 and that the government teams whisked away the wreckage and perhaps, the
 bodies of aliens.

   They also assert the remains of the crash were taken first to Fort Worth,
 Texas, then to what is now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.  The
 Air Force said the day after the recovery that the material was from a
 weather balloon equipped with a radar reflecting gadget.

   But UFO believers say the incident was the beginning of a government
 secrecy program that has hidden proof of the existence of extraterrestrial
 visitors for more than four decades.

   "For sort of all-around thoroughness, Roswell's the best case we've got,"
 said Michael Lindemann, a Santa Barbara, Calif., futurist who does research
 on UFOs.  "If we had no other UFO case at all, the elements of the Roswell
 case would go a very, very long way to proving we have had alien visitation.

   Philip J. Klass, a Washington, D.C., aviation writer who's worked for
 decades debunking UFO sightings, said, however, that there "isn't a shred
 of evidence" that a flying saucer was recovered at Roswell.  He said
 declassified military documents show high-ranking Air Force and White House
 officials never had any knowledge of such a find, and it's absurd to think
 lower-level operatives could have kept such a secret from their bosses.

   But Schiff said long-standing suspicions of such a conspiracy make the
 GAO investigation worthwhile.

   "I just assume that if there were alien bodies at Wright-Patterson Air
 Force Base, somebody would have discovered them during all these years,"
 he said.  "On the other hand, you have to say anything is possible as long
 as the government won't talk.  The government promotes these things with
 its silence."

   The congressman said he decided to look into the allegations after
 receiving letters from people interested in UFOs, including a couple from
 people who claimed to have witnessed the wreckage at the crash site.

   Last March, according to Klass' Skeptic UFO Newsletter, Schiff wrote to
 Secretary of Defence Les Aspin requesting an Air Force briefing on the
 Roswell Incident.  Schiff said Wednesday (1/12/94) that Air Force officials
 told him later they couldn't brief him because all the documents from the
 investigation known as Project Blue Book has been sent to the National
 Archives.

   He contacted the National Archives officials, who said they're not in the
 business of giving briefings.

   "We went back and forth a little bit and, frankly, I got tired of going
 back and forth, " he said.  "I talked to the people at GAO (in October)
 and told them about this."

   Schiff has frequent contact with GAO officials because he'son the House
 Government Operations Committee, which oversee the GAO.

   "I asked them, 'Is this anything that you might be able to assist me
 with?'" Schiff recalled.  "They said, 'We've never done anything like this
 before.  We mostly lok into fiscal matters ... but it sounds interesting.
 Why not give us a stab at it?'"

   Since then, said GAO spokeswoma Laura Kopelson, an investigator has
 begun studying documents and looking into the cover-up allegations.  She
 said the results will be reported back to Schiff.

   Schiff said he was told a few days ago the investigator had nothing to
 report yet, and one of his aides was told the investigator was "getting
 stonewalled" by the Department of Defence.

   "That made them that much more interested in the investigation," he said.