Wednesday, March 02, 2005

The Case Against Michael Salla

There has been a great deal of debate on UFO Updates lately about Exo-politics (the supposed study of how humanity interacts with alien races), and one of its biggest proponents, Dr. Michael Salla.

I’ve been one of the most vocal critics of his approach (or, as he would put it, methodology) when dealing with the testimony of alleged whistleblowers, who, for those who might not be aware, are, for the most part, people who claim to have worked in some capacity for the government and were made privy to the truth about the UFO cover-up. Lately Dr. Salla has been touting Bob Lazar as a reliable “witness”.

In an effort to be fair, I figured the least I could do was take a look at Dr. Salla’s website…

http://www.exopolitics.org/

… and read through his various papers on the subject of exo-polictics. Who knows, I thought? Perhaps there is more to this than meets the eye.

I should have known better.

As it turns out, Dr. Salla is even less discriminating in his vetting of “whistleblowers” than I had thought possible, given his support for Bob Lazar.

In a paper with the grandiose title The Emergence of ‘Track Two’ Galactic Diplomacy with Extraterrestrial Races – The Role of Private Citizens & Groups in Establishing Communications & Agreements with Extraterrestrial Races, Dr. Salla writes:

“There are dozens of extraterrestrial races with a variety of motivations that are interacting with global humanity. These extraterrestrial motivations span the spectrum from ‘benevolent’ activities aimed at uplifting humanity towards a fuller expression of its collective potential, to manipulative activities designed to undermine human sovereignty. There is extensive evidence of government agencies in the United States and elsewhere having held meetings and having reached agreements with some extraterrestrial races. Those official diplomatic meetings have been highly classified and suggest that ‘galactic diplomacy’ at an official level has been secretly underway for at least 50 years without the knowledge of most citizens and elected representatives. A detailed examination of the fourteen most significant extraterrestrial races interacting with humanity reveals the role played by national security agencies in the US secretly reaching agreements with some extraterrestrial races while suppressing information about these agreements, and of the existence and activities of extraterrestrial races in general.” [This paper can be accessed at www.galacticdiplomacy.com/GD-Art-1.htm]

Wow.

Now, when someone makes a claim like that, the first thing I do is look to see what his source is for the conclusions he has drawn.

Dr. Salla’s primary source?

William Cooper.

Wow, indeed.

Now, if you took an opinion poll of everyone who knows something about the UFO phenomenon, in which you asked “who is the biggest wacko in the history of ufology,” I strongly suspect that the late Mr. Cooper – killed in a shoot-out with sheriff’s deputies (after Cooper fired first, severely wounding a deputy) trying to serve an arrest warrant for aggravated assault charges in 2001 – would be at the top of the list. He certainly would get my vote. Bob Lazar and Philip Corso seem positively respectable when compared to Cooper.

Want to find out what William Cooper was all about? Check out:

http://www.hourofthetime.com/

Of course, Dr. Salla has an explanation for all the criticisms of Cooper, which can be found in his paper Eisenhower’s 1954 Meeting with Extraterrestrials: The Fiftieth Anniversary of Contact. There he concludes that Cooper’s “testimony” is “most likely” credible, and all of the bad stuff about Cooper (see below) can be explained away because “The controversial Cooper has been subjected to undoubtedly the longest and most intense military-intelligence efforts to discredit or intimidate any whistleblower revealing classified information.” You can access this paper at:

www.exopolitics.org/Study-Paper-8.htm

So, what did the “controversial Cooper” himself have to say - because surely not even Dr. Salla believes that the government could put words into Cooper’s mouth?

All sorts of things, as it turns out. A good place to start looking is his speech to the 1989 MUFON Symposium, the full text of which can be found at:

www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/maji007.html?20051

I encourage everyone to read Cooper’s rantings carefully, although you may want to use the Internet and therefore avoid spending any money on his book Behold a Pale Horse. In the meantime, here are some of my (UFO-related) favourites.

“Between January 1947 and December 1952 at least 16 crashed or downed alien craft, 65 alien bodies, and 1 live alien were recovered. An additional alien craft had exploded and nothing was recovered from that incident. Of these incidents, 13 occurred within the borders of the United States not including craft which disintegrated in the air. Of these 13, 1 was in Arizona, 11 were in New Mexico, and 1 was in Nevada. Three occurred in foreign countries. Of those 1 was in Norway, and the last 2 were in Mexico.”

For creatures that can travel the stars, it seems that the aliens were pretty lousy pilots. I can accept the possibility of a mishap or two (even aliens presumably are subject to Murphy’s Law), but “at least 16?”

For those who think there an alien spacecraft crashed near Aztec, New Mexico in 1948, Cooper goes one better:

“An alien craft was found on February 13, 1948 on a mesa near Aztec, New Mexico. Another craft was located on March 25, 1948, in Hart Canyon near Aztec, New Mexico.”

Two crashes? Someone should alert Bill Steinman – it appears he missed one.

Not only were alien bodies (17 of them) supposedly recovered from these two sites, but, according to Cooper:

“of greater significance was the discovery of a large number of human body parts stored within both of these vehicles.”

Not even Silas Newton was brazen enough to try and include this little gem in his con.

Cooper continued. He described an effort by the US government and the Vatican to decipher a critical prophecy, which they did, and which supposedly revealed:

“World War III would begin in the Middle Eats in 1995 with an invasion of Israel by a United Arab nation using conventional weapons which would culminate in a nuclear holocaust in the year 1999. Between 1999 and 2003 most of the life on this planet would suffer horribly and die as a result. The return of Christ would occur in the year 2011. When the aliens were confronted with this finding they confirmed that it was true…. They further explained that they were capable of time travel and the events would indeed come to pass.”

Hmm… it seems that I missed the holocaust, although I suppose I can still look forward to the imminent return of Christ. Or perhaps the aliens were just kidding.

And so it goes.

Now, some who desperately want confirmation for their own belief in crashed flying saucers and alien visitation (as opposed to evidence, which is what the rest of us are looking for), might latch on to this and defend Cooper, and through Cooper, Dr. Salla, who vouches for Cooper’s credibility.

They would no doubt cheer when Cooper concludes that the hated Phil Klass is an agent of the CIA.

But what are these well-meaning, albeit naïve, people to make of Cooper’s assertion that Majestic-12 (which most of them, including Salla, at least with respect to the SOM1-01 document, also accept as real) is a government disinformation program? Or that Stan Friedman, the Father of Roswell, one of the most respected elder statesmen of ufology, is probably a government agent responsible for spreading disinformation in the form of the MJ-12 documents? As Cooper put it:

“Stanton Friedman has told me and many others that years ago “he helped develop a nuclear reactor, to power and aircraft, that was the size of a basketball, was clean, turned out hydrogen, and worked like a dream.” His words, not mine. The only fuel which could go into such an engine and produce hydrogen as a by-product is water and that is precisely what at least one type of alien craft runs on, nuclear energy and water. The only place in the universe at that time to get such technology was from the aliens. Is he really unwitting? I do not know. He was a member of the Moore, Shandera, and Friedman research team and it was they who implemented the MAJESTIC TWELVE contingency plan… The actions of Stanton Friedman and William Moore are highly suspect.”

So now Friedman is highly suspect, and probably an agent of the government (Bruce Maccabee was also singled out by Cooper, although he was less certain of Maccabee’s involvement).

Cooper went further five years later, in a paper called Majesty Twelve, which can be found at:

www.hourofthetime.com/majestyt.htm

Here he wrote:

“Socialist change agents known to you as William Moore, Jaime Shandera, and Stanton T. Friedman presented the hoax known as Operation Majestic-12. These fake documents were printed in the socialist New York Times. It was an attempt to lead people away from the truth by presenting an artificial alien threat as a ‘government cover-up’ of extraterrestrial visitation. Most of the well-known uFOOLogists and so-called researchers are Illuminati, Marxist, CIA or KGB change agents operating in furtherance of propagandizing the American people. You wouldn’t but a used car from any of these people… why are you’ buying flying saucers’? Stanton Friedman ends every lecture with an appeal for world government which he justifies by asking, ‘who speaks for planet Earth… Argentina?’”

A picture of Stan Friedman follows, under which is the caption:

“would you buy a flying saucer from this man?”

Whether you accept that the MJ-12 documents are authentic or not, this is hogwash, hooey and bunk, all rolled into one. But what would one expect from someone who published the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion in Behold a Pale Horse, without critical comment (see http://www.answers.com/topic/the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion)?

But there’s more. Cooper also wrote in Majesty Twelve:

"All so-called leaks are intentional misinformation projects designed to promote the alien threat scenario while allowing for complete deniability on the part of the government. The antics of... William Moore, Jaime Shandera, Stanton T. Friedman, Bruce Maccabee (CIA / ONI)... Whitley Streiber, Bud [sic] Hopkins (CIA), John Lear (CIA), Linda Moulton-Howe... Colonel Philip Corso (CIA, a monumental liar now deceased)... and many other people are projects of this type. Some (very few) of these people are unwitting accomplices in the charade and truly believe in the extraterrestrial threat. Most of those named, and others not named, are active, and with full knowledge, agents of illuminism / socialism. The most well known are active Fellow Travelers, communist agents of the KGB, the Central Intelligence Agency, or one of the many psychological warfare agencies founded by the Rhodes Round Table Group (the Group), the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the Council on Foreign Relations."

The really hilarious part (at some point you either have to laugh, or cry – I choose the former) is that Dr. Salla cites both John Lear and Philip Corso as credible sources in the same paper in which he cites William Cooper as a credible source, the same William Cooper who maintained that Corso was a “monumental liar” and that Lear was “CIA”. If there is a bigger jumble of contradictory statements and wilful blindness in ufology, I haven’t seen it yet. And yet Dr. Salla weaves it all into his story, never minding, as John Lydon might have said, the “bollocks.”

By endorsing Cooper as a credible witness, Salla is endorsing statements such as these. He is encouraging people to accept Cooper as a sincere witness who was the victim of a devious and extensive campaign by the government to discredit him.

In truth, Cooper was a deeply troubled man whose own writings, and paranoia, discredited him and ultimately destroyed him.

There is no merit in Cooper’s claims (don’t take my word for it – read them yourselves). As Salla’s conclusions are based, in significant part, on those claims, there can be no merit in them either.

Here’s a final question for those in ufology who would still give Dr. Salla's views and theories any consideration. He wrote “the creation of controversy, uncertainty and confusion is the modus-operandi of military-intelligence agencies in maintaining secrecy of the extraterrestrial presence.” (www.exopolitics.org/Study-Paper-8.htm).

The question is :

Isn’t that exactly what Dr. Salla is doing by continuing to promote frauds like Bob Lazar, Philip Corso, and especially William Cooper?

Ufology needs to ask itself – why is Dr. Salla still given the benefit of the doubt? The serious study of the UFO phenomenon needs his kind of “methodology” –and the conclusions to which the blind acceptance of the word of men like William Cooper leads - like it needs a hole in the head.

To those who might say I’m being rude, or confrontational, or hubristic, I would ask - is our desire to be polite, and in the process to treat every point of view, no matter how ridiculous, with an equal degree of importance and weight, so great that we will not – or cannot – stand up when we see something so obviously wrong?

As the old saying goes, with “friends” like these, who needs enemies.

Paul Kimball

13 comments:

RRRGroup said...

Has Dr. Salla, or anyone, ever investigated Lazar, Cooper, or Corso for psychological quirks?

Lazar and Cooper have the "symptoms" of sociopaths, or psychopaths as defined by an enlightening book, so titled by Alan Harrington (Simon and Schuster, 1972).

Corso, devolved into a kind of dementia, which his ghost-written book only partially concealed.

His demeanor in television interviews just before his death showed a man with the classic physiognomy of a person suffering dementia.

While Dr. Salla takes into account a lot of peripheral elements to confirm (for him) that persons like Lazar and Cooper may be harboring truths, I haven't seen him or anyone take into account the psychology of those persons.

Adamski and the 50s contactees were con men with obvious amateurish credentials. They might have seemed harmless but they sure significantly set back the study of "flying discs."

But the "normal" appearing guys like Lazar do even more damage, because they get the attention of good men, scholars even, like Dr. Salla, and take those men away from a productive study of the UFO phenomenon.

Clearing the clutter caused by these cons, and trying to get the Sallas of the world back on track takes a mighty effort.

Dr. Salla may be on to something, but it has nothing to do with UFOs; it has more to do with a psychopathology which, in itself, is worthy of study...but not within the UFO field perhaps.

Your clarifying approach, Paul, is exemplary, even as I feel for Dr. Salla. He's spending a lot of time defending Lazar and other cons when he would better serve the UFO community by looking for real "whistleblowers."

Rich Reynolds

Paul Kimball said...

Rich:

Dr. Salla's problem is not that he's been taken in by these guys, but that he fails to recognise it, even when presented with overwhelming evidence to that effect. I don't know why, as I don't know Salla personally, but I can only surmise that he is a true "believer" and that his objectivity has been clouded as a result. Therefore, he finds what he's looking for in order to buttress his own pre-conceived belief system.

I agree, however, that there is a psychological study screaming out to be done about the Lazars, Corsos and Coopers of the world, in the context of their role in ufology.

Paul

RRRGroup said...

There is book, once quite popular, by Eric Hoffer called "The True Believer" (if memory serves).

The content would explain Dr. Salla but also some key members of the UFO community.

I'll dig it out -- yes, I have a copy, and will insert passages that pertain.

While Dr. Salla falls at one end of the "believer" spectrum, there are UFO aficionados who fall at the other end of the "believer" spectrum, and the UFO middle-road, the sensible mean, is left to UFO investigators like you Paul.

It may be time for the objective "middle-roaders" to take back (if they ever had control of it) the UFO platform.

Rich Reynolds

Paul Kimball said...

Rich:

Alas, I'm not a UFO investigator, nor do I claim to be - just an interested (and opinionated) bystander.

However, I definitely agree that there are "believers" on the other end of the spectrum (call them "non-believers").

It is indeed time for the "middle of the road" approach to re-assert itself.

Ufology should ask itself - is it just a talking club for a small clique, or is it actually trying to accomplish something? If so, what?

If the goal is to educate the public, and encourage them to look at the evidence, ufology must be willing to accept that not everyone who looks at the evidence is going to agree with it / them.

Ufology must not duck a healthy debate. There should be no sacred cows.

By healthy, however, I do not mean Dr. Salla, or Steven Greer, or any of the others who drag ufology away from the mainstream and into the wilderness of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. You wouldn't take these folks seriously in a discussion about national politics; why take them seriously when the discussion is the UFO phenomenon?

Paul

Anonymous said...

I feel like I live on the planet "SCHIZO".
Dr. Salle seems to be talking his head of about nothing.(ANd yes, in circles)
I believe in "STRING THEORY" (attached a dollar to a string, hide, when someone picks up, move slightly away from him, repeat until subject gives up) LOL
Follow the money to find out why people are saying what they are saying.
Meanwhile, plant a tree, conserve water and air (turn off your god dam cars when you pick up a six pack at 7/11),and most of all, respect human life.
Do you need a PHD for this?
The most absurd explanation about Tesla's origins I have ever heard, too. According to him, he came from Venus. Well, before you have the facts, how about giving credit to his origins in Eastern Europe, respectively Serbia?
By applying my "STRING THEORY" you will understand why he ended up poor and lonely and dying in a some hotel room in N.Y.City.
And if you really want to see an alien in him, sure, he was;
Serbian Alien on "Planet Schizo".

Anonymous said...

Latest updates about Michael Salla:
The guy started on www.examiner.com just another marketing campain for his people-fooling books and lectures. Since examinar allows comments, I came forward with some inconvenient truth and facts. That caused Mr. Salla to delete (!) my comments. So we have the amazing situation, sombody who accuses governments to supress the 'truth' acts in the same manner ans censors away critical voices.

Anonymous said...

You quote from MAJESTYTWELVE, but did you even read that whole report?

Cooper admits that he was duped (as are many others) into believing the UFO information he saw in the military was real.

YES, IT'S A HOAX.

As Cooper explains in his later writings (including MAJESTYTWELVE), that the government is making up the information about UFOs to ultimately use it to create a One World Government.

Of Course Dr. Salla and these other guys are wrong. All this info is disinformation from the CIA.

Anonymous said...

to the person who created this...
naturally one can only speak from his/her own state of consciousness or evolution. absolutely fair and understandable. initiating the "wow" is this person serious approach, means that you are somewhat interested and will ultimately draw your conclusions and receive the answers you desire. as it take much effort to investigate or to seek the infinite possibilities of what you do not understand, yet. we all have opinions which stem from what we know at that time in our lives only. i encourage you to continue your search as the initial purpose for your original question which led you to openly share your concerns will lead you to the truth of our existence. salome

hawksblood1 said...

I would like to say I have been involved with UFO's -aliens -spiritualism all my life. I had many personal exsperiences as well. I have many close friends that also had them. My good friend was friends with Cooper. He did have a problim in his end days.
If you really knew much about the GOV you would understand what happens to people involved with saying anything about UFO's and Gov.
You should check out John Ford he is up for reveiw next month. 16 years in the nut house for shooting the best UFO video of a crash in Long Island. I saw it and new him.
Larry Warren (left at East Gate) it took him ten years to get his name back after he got out of the army. He was one of the people in the biggest UFO story ever. I was friends with him.
I am sure you don't know Phil Schnider and the truth about his death. I know three people personal killed by the Gov plus my best friend and his family dissapeared. He worked for NASA. I just showed him some pictures of UFO's we took. I new him all my life.
Also in the past few years over 200 people in the UFO world dissapeared or were killed. The same as two hundred people that were scientist died. Yes you can say some might be accendent.
Now many people dealing with UFO's really (actual experience) don't ever really fit back into normal life again and many do have serious problems after.
Salla doesn't have the real experience. He deals with Greer but even he suddenly came into money. I will only talk about people I know personal. Like a very serious event happened when Fred Bell was found dead two days after a recording part of a show he was doing for Jesse Vetura. The series never aired yet.
I am doing the biggest UFO conference this year in AZ and trying to bring out as much truth as I can with it.

http://www.stargatetothecosmos.com

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

I think that those who show such intolerance with other points of view show themselves for what they truly are, bigots Or persons with a hidden agenda. if you're going to call somebody a liar then you need to back it up with facts lots of facts and if a person has some part of their story wrong, that is not justification to ignore everything they have said. But only a single point in your data to consider when trying to ascertain truth. with all the lies and corruption coming out of government how could you believe anything from the government side.. With what we know about the government's ability to psychologically disinform us directly (MKULTRA) or indirectly through news media etc. and persecute anyone who tries to expose the government for the corruption and lies.. and it goes both ways. just because you claim yourself to be a whistleblower is not enough either so please let everybody try to stick to facts as you know it. remember the adage extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. one point to consider is why would anybody put their whole life and career on the line to say such false words if it was not so. in order to answer that their whole life needs to be up for examination and considered honestly. another point worth consideration is when Operation Paperclip was being executed all those scientist who were coming over we're being directed towards the space race so how is it that there could be possibly another set of exceptional outstanding, at the top of their game scientist who are then gathering and trying to implement all of the extraterrestrial technology why would the top scientists in NASA being worrying about rockets when supposedly they have Space ships that can go to the moon in a matter of minutes? we now know beyond any shadow of a doubt from all the evidence that has been presented in that John F Kennedy was assassinated with the assistance of the CIA and the Israeli intelligence the same two agencies that were involved and fully responsible for the 911 and to a lesser or equal degree the British intelligence along with the Vatican they are all guilty and their ranks full of pedophiles or pedophile enthusiast meaning that they put into government pedophiles and compromised officials so that they can then control all of them. this the evidence is overwhelming. Bill Cooper and Philip Schneider I believe honorable men. Bob Lazar I'm not so sure about.Even if these things are true they still Boil down to distractions the real issue before we consider anything else needs to be the revamping of our monetary system it is corrupt to the core it is mathematically unfeasible and is at the root of everything that is wrong with Our system. if the roof is diseased the whole plant is diseased And trying to dress up its foliage is a distraction and a waste of powerful and much needed human resources. our banking system needs to be demolished. new Debt coming in to the system from lending institutions, banks must be interest free. and Two any non-disclosure clause that is signed becomes null and void if those enforcing it can be shown to be committing illegal acts. let's start there and worry about the aliens later

Paul Kimball said...

Oh, the irony coming from someone defending people like Michael Salla:

"if you're going to call somebody a liar then you need to back it up with facts lots of facts"

Facts are the one thing missing from anything ever put out by the scurrilous / lunatic people you seem to like and follow.

PK

Ron D*8* Lim said...

What is interesting here, is that UFO is not even the right term as such is the biggest cover up to begin with U = Unidentified F=Flying O=Object...right? Wrong first of all they are not flying yet hovering, then they are not object but vehicle...third if they are from Extraterrestrial provenance then they would be called EHV for
ET Hovering Vehicles...but hey all good, if you guys have heard about Project Blue Book, was indeed more to misinform the mainstream then do any good, by the way if one is truly interested in Space Programs and such one needs to go way back and start see already in the Ancient Technologies if such hovering, flying and Rockets, Space Ships and such existed, and then eventually realize that it is nothing really new, but more the uneducated mainstream, that blindly believe that a representative Democracy will truly tell the what is going on as well as the those in Power will always truly tell what they are doing and so on...so just question yourself, is it about to find out who is right or wrong, or to find the Truth behind it??
Are we still behaving like little ego driven individuals that fighting about who's right or wrong???
Are we not realizing that's exactly why we are not getting the Truth, because 'They' in the know have created such Tension to one hand feed our consciousness with sheer crap and on the other with fear and so on???
Once we accept each others vision and maybe instead of fighting about it we would truly come together and gather all there is and exchange each experiences and knowledge we would then come closer to a global Truth!
Anyway, I hope one Day we will realize that by being Kindred, loving, Samaritan way of Living we will achieve more than just continuing this race of who is best, who knows more and so far...
Always Love, no matter what to ALL!!