Monday, June 20, 2005

Redfern & Roswell

My pal Nick Redfern (author of books such as Three Men Seeking Monsters and The FBI Files) has a new book coming out that is sure to touch off a major debate within the ranks of ufology - and probably beyond.



The subject?

Roswell.

From the press release:

"Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story (New York: Paraview-Pocket, 2005)

'RAAF captures flying saucer on ranch in Roswell region.'

Ever since this provocative headline appeared on July 8, 1947, conspiracy theorists have sincerely believed that the US government has maintained an extensive operation of cover-up and denial regarding its knowledge of alien life.

But what if there was a much darker secret surrounding the famous Roswell UFO crash - one that had nothing to do with aliens?

Now, in his new book, Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story, and through never-before-revealed testimony from military whistleblowers, eyewitness intelligence reports, and an astonishing body of corroborative evidence, Nick Redfern lays out a controversial new theory on the Roswell mystery: that the crash-site discovery of prototype military aircraft would expose a damning secret - a highly confidential, US government-sanctioned program to conduct post-World War Two medical experiments on deformed, disfigured and diseased Japanese people and prisoners of war, exploited as expendable by their captors.

An important account that forces us to take a closer look at both the Roswell story and post-war American history, Body Snatchers in the Desert casts a startling new light on the most infamous conspiracy of them all.

Shocking whistle-blower testimony from Body Snatchers in the Desert:

'Those bodies - the Roswell bodies - they weren't aliens. The government could care less about stories about alien bodies found at Roswell, except to hide the truth. Those bodies were Japanese people. I should have spoken about this years ago. I should have said something.'

'The Japanese and the Nazis had done unspeakable things to these people. Well, it was probably inevitable that someone is going to realize that there is a huge research value to looking at the way in which people and bodies have been used... in high-altitude experimentation, pressurization tests, injecting of plagues and viruses, chemicals, and - later, here - exposure to radiation.'

'Word came down that this was to be a highly-classified project: 'If it helps us get an edge on the Russians, do what you have to do with these people, but you keep it classified and you commit nothing to paper.' They knew, we all knew, that this was going to be damned and dirty. Everyone had their own pet projects with these people... and the desert was big enough for everyone to have their slice.'"

I've had the chance to chat briefly with Nick about the book (he's got a review copy winging its way to me as I write), as well as Stan Friedman. It's clear to me that there is a major brouhaha brewing over Nick's book, and the reaction to it by Roswell proponents like Stan (who was kind enough to send me a copy of his advance review).

More information about the book - which I will be reviewing here in a week or so - can be found at Nick's website, www.nickredfern.com.

Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story hits bookstores tomorrow.

Keep an eye on this story, folks - it will have a major impact on ufology, one way or another.

Paul Kimball

4 comments:

Kyle said...

So it would appear that the X-Files movie (Fight the FUTURE) wasn't half wrong, if Nick is right.

The idea that the US government would use UFOs as a cover for atrocites is not particularly surprising.

Even the "black oil" is a nice metaphor for plague or other biological agents which might have been developed elsewhere, but which apparently were "perfected" here, much as Nazi aeronautical science was first "acquired" via Paperclip, to be perfected on our shores.

Excellent work by Nick Redfern.

The only question remaining is whether he's the subject of an enormous disinfo campaign, or onto the truth. My feeling on possible disinfo is that it would be much more likely the other way around, as Nick's book seems to suggest.

Where this leaves the UFO debate...in light of the recent string of hoaxed videos, flares, balloons, mad prophets, etc...is now a greater debate than ever before.

Paul Kimball said...

Kyle:

Don't forget the mess that is Exopolitics, and the "whistleblower" testimonies being put forward by Michael Salla - both a colossal waste of time and effort.

As for Nick's book, I'll withhold judgment until I've read it. It will certainly set off a major debate, however - of that I have no doubt - just like Karl Pflock's book did a few years ago.

Paul

Unknown said...

Nick is going to mail me a copy tomorrow and after I've read it we're going to sit down within the next couple of weeks and talk about it.

I was one of the many that has always "believed" that Roswell might be the crash of an alien craft but there also has always been this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that there was way more to it. I think Nick's book just might explain it.

There are a lot of people that are going to be none too happy with this book but as Nick told me. "You have to go where the evidence leads"

If you want to order a copy you can go here

Kyle said...

Ouch...I'd almost forgotten about Mikie and the Whistleblowers...geez. Yes, the UFO landscape is getting more motley all the time.

I initially felt that Salla's heart was in the right place, and that he just didn't want to dismiss insider testimony without a fair hearing. Upon hearing more of his rhetoric, however, it became obvious that he has blinded himself to critical thinking, and is many cases plain common sense.

I must state for the record that, like Terry, I don't buy Redfern's thesis out of hand either. But revelations like the Tuskegee experiments, the secret testing on Americans in past decades, experiments with LSD on prison inmates, and the soldiers stationed near atomic blasts without protection make Redfern's story much more plausible than it would have been in 1947.

One thing that bugged me about the story was the reference to the Japanese "glider" looking like the Kenneth Arnold craft. Obviously Arnold wasn't seeing huge balloon arrays with his "saucers" dangling below. What was the point of that tangent?

Like Terry, I'll wait for the book and give it a fair reading. It certainly is a compelling narrative, from what I read in the PDF of the magazine story.

But Paul, you're right about the state of the debate...Redfern's story is just one wrench in the works, not the only one.