Friedman vs. Redfern - Round 2

Below is Nick Redfern's response to Stan Friedman's review of Body Snatchers in the Desert (for Stan's review see "Friedman vs. Redfern - Round 1"):

"For many years I was a firm believer in the theory that a UFO had crashed at Roswell and that alien bodies had been recovered at the crash site, too. In addition, I conducted a great deal of research into that particular subject as well as the surrounding controversy of the MJ12 documents.

When, several years ago, I began to hear tales that suggested the truth lay in another direction – namely that the Roswell affair had more to do with classified and controversial experimentation undertaken on human beings in the post-war era that was allied to the human radiation experiment scandal that surfaced during the Clinton administration – I was intrigued.

I have always been of the opinion that we should look at the UFO subject with an open mind. For that reason, I have spent the last few years quietly digging into the claims of a number of whistleblowers (some speaking on the record and some not), all of who asserted to me that the key event that led to the so-called Roswell Incident of July 1947 involved not an alien spacecraft, but a Horten-inspired flying wing that was affixed to a huge balloon array and that was piloted by a crew of Japanese personnel who had been brought to the US from Japan after WW2. To summarize a long story, this was essentially in a situation that closely paralleled the Paperclip saga with the transfer of Nazi scientists and technology from Germany to the US in the post-war era.

It is indeed a verifiable fact that in 1945 US newspapers reported that the Japanese were planning to build advanced balloons that were designed to be flown to the US and that they would be armed with bacteriological warfare materials and would be flown by, to quote the newspapers directly, “death-defying Japanese.” It is also highly intriguing that the pilots would have to be small men, because weight, size, food provisions, etc. would have to be kept to an absolute minimum.

According to the interviewees, the real picture was hidden because of the bacteriological warfare link: it tied the US Government to the controversial human-experimentation activities of Japan’s notorious Unit 731 and would create in people’s minds the idea that the US Government was supportive of such work.

Although Stan Friedman dismisses the claims of the interviewees as disinformation, it should be noted that I was not the first to make this claim. Indeed, Popular Mechanics had made similar comments and observations 8 years ago.

Stan asks to what extent the backgrounds and credibility of the witnesses had been checked. In answer to that, I can state that I have met all of the interviewees on several occasions. All have provided to me the type of materials that it would be extremely hard to fake, including photographs taken during their periods of employment at the time that they informed me they worked there (Oak Ridge, the Pentagon, the DIA). Additional data included tax records and even pictures taken at a party to celebrate the retirement of one of the sources at an official function that also shows numerous Pentagon “brass” in attendance.

Personally, I do not believe that the accounts of the witnesses are fabricated, for one key reason: although this is not spelled out in the book, some of them were highly concerned (in one case for 2 years) about speaking out publicly. In other words, these were not disinformation people pushing to get me to go public with a carefully created cover story. In fact, it was the opposite: it was me pushing them to speak ou!

Also, if this is disinformation: why would the Government spread such disinformation at all? They already have the Mogul Balloon and Crash Test Dummy stories in place. For the Government to create another scenario would only add to the suspicion that it was hiding something other than Mogul. Therefore, I have to say that the disinformation angle doesn’t work.

I would hope that people would read the book in its entirety, listen to the sources and then weigh the evidence. I will leave you with an observation: I have been able to verify that in 1945 the Japanese were planning to attack the US with large balloon systems with fully-furnished gondolas fixed below them and that would hold a crew of small, Japanese pilots. Less than two years later, a large amount of balloon-like debris was found at Roswell along with a number of small bodies, near in aerospace terms to a location – White Sands – that was working with captured Axis technology."

In an e-mail to me last week, Nick added the following:

"Paul...

Stan's review says I was given a 'bum steer' about the nuclear aircraft project etc, and its alleged cancelation date, etc. The impression being that this info initially came to me via the interviewees - it didn't. This info came directly from the official website of the Oak Ridge installation, where the nuke aircraft project was housed!

So, if the official people who worked the project have the data wrong, someone really should tell them!!!

Check out: www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter3.shtml and scroll down to where there is a picture of a group of guys taken near an aircraft in '57, and you'll see the info re the cancellation of the project, etc that I reference exactly as that in the book.

Indeed, in the Reference section of the book I use the exact reference above as the source, not an interviewee source.

Also see none other than Defense Journal at www.defensejoornal.com/jul99/decay-atomic.htm

There are countless other official sites (and files at the National Archives) that refer to the Congressional cut-backs, canceleation by JFK of the project etc, none of which create a "bum steer" but all of which agree with my scenario.

So in other words the "bum steer" data came from the official Oak Ridge website and official Archives documents - not my sources.

Again, if every one of these (including the official site at Oak Ridge!) are wrong, then they should all be told...

Nick"

The debate, no doubt, will continue. I'll keep you posted.

Paul Kimball