From: UFOLAWYER1@aol.com To: CAUSupdates@caus.org Subject: [CAUS updates] - Joe Firmage and the "new" MJ-12 Documents Date: Tuesday, December 15, 1998 4:07 PM Dear CAUS Members, First, I would like to personally welcome the over 1000 new members who have joined the CAUS in the last 24 hours. I am confident you will not be disappointed. In the past few days CAUS has received e-mails requesting that I comment on the 'new' MJ-12 documents released recently. Due to more immediate concerns, I have not had the opportunity to read all the documents, and thus will not comment until I do. What I do find interesting, though, is the fact that Mr. Firmage, the driving force behind their release, though possessing the documents for several years, at no time asked for my opinion...though I have probably read more government released documents in the past twenty years than anyone else. I would also be interested in learning whether a handwriting analysis of the signatures of each of the documents was attempted. But for those of you clamoring for some information, CAUS shares with you two recent postings...one about Joe Firmage, and the other by him: 1) The London Times Dec. 9, 1998 http://www.sunday-times.co.uk:80/news/pages/Times/timintint01007.html?3011046 Joe Firmage is a Californian New Ager, a hippy-speaking child of Salt Lake City Mormons, whose stated ambition is to explore 100 new planets. There aren't many reasons why anyone would listen when this man starts claiming he has documents proving the US government recovered alien corpses from a crashed UFO - except, at the age of 28, Joseph P. Firmage has already made two multimillion-dollar fortunes. His first business, Serius, writing operating system codes, sold for $24 million in 1993. His second, USWeb, is about to become the world's biggest specialist in online business services. Now Firmage says he is sinking $2 million of his own capital into Project Kairos, preparing humanity to meet the extra-terrestrials who imparted wisdom to our ancestors. On November 25 he launched a research institute called the International Space Sciences Organisation, to explore the technology that will connect us to the aliens. To encourage mankind to abandon the profit motive, he is developing EarthCity, an online shopping scheme that will fund charities. And to open our minds to his message, he has published The Truth at http://www.the-word-is-truth.org/truth.cfm - a book on the web telling the history of UFO visits to Earth. Like all truths, this one is beautiful but puzzling. Instead of an index, there's a poem. Readers navigate through the chapters along a twining double helix of DNA that glows and flashes as the cursor shifts. The style floats from far-out to spaced-out. Firmage's press officer, Melinda Mattei, makes things clearer. Top secret documents, she says, are being released through the site. Dr Robert Wood, a former physicist with McDonnell Douglas, has declared them genuine. The papers are said to prove a wrecked UFO was captured by the US military in 1947. Autopsies were carried out on the occupants. Inside the highest security cordon ever created, technicians probed the ship. Their discoveries were "seeded" into private industry, and included advances in micro-circuitry and fibre optics. "For the first time in 50 years, society is now ready to hear the rest of the story," says Firmage. At least he's putting his money where his mouth is. copyright 1998 Times Newspapers Ltd. 2) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS CONTACT December 14, 1998 Melinda Mattei 650-558-0890 mmattei@earthlink.net Statement Issued Regarding the Authenticity of the MAJESTIC 12 Documents SANTA CLARA, CA: December 14, 1998. The following statement was released today by Joseph Firmage, chairman of the International Space Sciences Organization, and primary author of The Truth (www.TheWordIsTruth.org) . "Now that the new MAJESTIC 12 documents are in broad circulation, it is appropriate for me to make a few comments regarding their authenticity and their role in support of the hypothesis contained in The Truth. Let me first state for the record five key philosophical points that frame my sponsorship of this initiative: 1- I have no economic motive in advancing this hypothesis or these materials. I have every conceivable career disincentive for pursuing this research. However, this line of discovery in my opinion is more important than any individual's career, and I am putting my money where my mouth is to do this. 2- Only those who have taken the time to read extensively in the domain are qualified to assess the historicity of the UFO phenomenon. Outright rejection of the evidence without comprehensive review of the research in print across hundreds of books is close-minded, unscientific, and indeed irresponsible in the extreme. It is also quite understandable given decades of government disinformation which, right or wrong in its genesis and continuation, was specifically designed to create a "giggle factor" surrounding the subject. 3- I will not selectively listen only to the evidence that simply agrees with my own previously stated views, nor will I reject evidence because it is contrary to conventional presumptions of scientists. The case "for" the reality of the UFO phenomenon is rather comprehensively summarized in The Truth, and as credible and rigorous new evidence materializes, it will be added to the site. As I discover rigorous skeptical examinations of individual documentary or historical evidence, I will include them also as part of the appropriate sections of The Truth, and/or use them to modify my own position as reflected in the narrative. Everyone will have the ability to read such perspectives and decide for themselves what is true. 4- The UFO phenomenon can no longer be dismissed because of an apparent incompatibility with the laws of physics, such as the speed of light limitation on interstellar travel. There are now numerous well-grounded physics papers and books in circulation that clearly point towards the ability to engineer spacetime itself, which effectively provide clear plausibility to the concept of gravitational propulsion. If we have the intellectual courage to take the Drake equation and project into it technology capable of engineering gravity, we will be left not only with the plausibility of something like the observed UFO phenomenon, but the overwhelming likelihood of it. This is a simple scientific fact. 5- I am unwaveringly committed to a rigorous pursuit of the truth, wherever that may lead. www.TheWordIsTruth.org will contain my best effort to present the complete and true story spanning the subjects touched upon within it. With those points as a foundation for the evolution of my book, I would like to state my own views on the question of how the authenticity of the MJ-12 materials bears on the historicity of the events they describe. After years of analysis of previously-published MJ-12 documents (such as the work conducted by Stanton Friedman) and particularly in light of the newly released MJ-12 documents, one thing is clear to virtually all serious researchers regardless of whether they believe in the pristine authenticity of the new materials: many of the MJ-12 documents simply must have been authored by or within the military-intelligence community of a superpower. This fact alone speaks volumes when considered next to the mountain of other UFO evidence. If the documents are pristine and true, they were written by the individuals therein mentioned or assistants. If the documents are partial or complete forgeries, then they were written by an intelligence agency of the government of either the United States or the Soviet Union. In this sense, even the serious-minded skeptics are hard pressed not to agree that they are "authentic" in terms of military-intelligence authorship. The question is, could they be authentic in military-intelligence authorship and not authentic in detail? And if so, what does that say about the most important authentication question of all: the basic history they describe? It is almost certain that the security infrastructures created to contain the history of the crash of an extraterrestrial vehicle in 1947 would ultimately wind up creating forgeries for whatever purpose. Three ulterior purposes immediately spring to mind: (1) documents seeded with small but critical flaws, destined to one day leak and discredit their entire chains of custody and all of the surrounding research, thereby helping to seal the cover on the program, (2) documents fabricated to mis-inform Cold War allies or enemies or proxies thereof about the details of the events, and (3) documents fabricated to disinform internal constituencies: competing branches of government, particularly nosy investigators, diligent reporters, or the public at large. But whether every single MJ-12 document is completely accurate in historical detail, genuine in authorship, or pristine in generation is not the issue. It is obviously possible that an intelligence agency of either superpower fabricated one or more of the documents for one of the purposes described above, or some other purpose. However, I believe that it is exceedingly improbable that such documents were created in a vacuum - created as complete fiction, in the complete absence of an authentic phenomenon and original historical events. The mere existence of such documents as these, containing the verifiable details that they do, is powerful evidence for the reality of the basic storyline in the history they recount. Indeed, I have personally sat across the table from top leaders and brilliant minds of the military and science, on multiple occasions, who have confirmed the basic truth of the UFO phenomenon. Those who know me best know that I would never have bet my reputation and my career without such explicit confirmation. I have nothing - nothing - to gain by lying. I am telling the truth. For those involved in UFO research, I strongly suggest that you focus your energies on tying together the historical events and people described in the documents, rather than exclusively concentrating on the history of the pages themselves. As far as "proving" the pristine authenticity of the MJ-12 documents and their history is concerned, it is really only critical to validate any one of the principal documents. If only a single major document is validated, then MJ-12 was factual, and its confirmed existence and basic mission is to be added to the already overwhelming and far more powerful testimonial evidence in favor of the reality of the UFO phenomenon. Focusing too much time on the provenance of the pages themselves is a mistake, because the most compelling proof that their storyline is basically true - short of new materials or events unfolding - is bound to come in the form of other corroborating historical research and witness testimony. In the final analysis, the skeptic is charged with doing far, far more than discrediting these newly released documents through speculative criticisms based upon typographical errors or one or two seemingly anachronistic details, because the historicity of the documents is not the most important question. The most important question is the historicity of the phenomenon they describe. There is OVERWHELMING evidence that the UFO phenomenon is real. Therefore, ANY such well-crafted documents - pristine in every detail or not - argue in behalf of the reality of the UFO phenomenon. It is astronomically unlikely that the massive and generally self-consistent evidence of extraterrestrial activity over the past five decades is simply a large coincidence or the product of a several good hoaxes. I ask the skeptic to step forward and comprehensively refute all the evidence: the millions of sightings, the thousands of reported landings, the thousands of abduction experiences, and the countless highly strange accompanying phenomena for which no one yet has a clear explanation: crop circles, cattle mutilations, etc. The refutation must take into account the following facts: (1) compelling UFO evidence spans all nations, modernized or not, regardless of whether their populations have been exposed to science fiction, (2) the evidence spans far more than 50 years - rather it goes back thousands of years, peppered throughout the ancient books and scriptures of our ancestors, and (3) the evidence is found to be exactly as it should be found when describing a phenomenon advanced far beyond humanity: it borders on the incomprehensible. How is a family of monkeys to interpret a Palm Pilot III? Or a Boeing 777? Or a football game? Or a scientist shooting at them with a dart to tranquilize, abduct, examine, and release them? Such a comparison is entirely fair and completely literal. I am not aware of the existence of sufficient contrary data to refute the massive accumulation of evidence supporting the reality of the UFO phenomenon. Indeed, let me restate perhaps the only truly powerful scientific argument against its plausibility: gravitational propulsion is not possible, therefore we have not been and are not being visited by beings from other worlds. This argument is ultimately the only basis upon which the UFO phenomenon can be rejected as a product of our collective imagination. So I ask you this: what if it is possible to engineer gravity? 100% of the scientific presumptions against interstellar travel - and by direct implication extraterrestrial visitation - must immediately be extinguished if there is a single credible demonstration of practical gravity engineering. There is good evidence to believe that open science is now flirting with such a demonstration, and it is reported in my book. But beyond the issue of UFOs, the hypothesis of The Truth integrates the majestic history of science with the profound history of faith. The reason I have not "called out" the MJ-12 documents within The Truth web site more prominently than the narrative is because we can begin to comprehend the UFO phenomenon only if we are capable of putting it into a coherent world view. How else can the implications of such astonishing information possibly be considered? The Truth represents one best continuing effort to rigorously integrate a world view given such knowledge. It proposes that several billion faithful human beings across history have indeed been doing their faltering best to follow their truth, just as several hundred million scientists have done more recently. If we reject the hypothesis of The Truth and nothing replaces it that can as coherently connect science and faith in history, then we must ask ourselves how we can avoid spiraling towards one of three unambiguous and harsh futures: science deconstructing faith as fantasy, religion destroying science as evil, or perhaps economics destroying both as inefficient. If the hypothesis of The Truth is correct, or if another hypothesis can bring these questions into coherence with equal completeness, then there is indeed a grander integrated story of our history. In that case it is not only important, but vital at this time to step beyond our preexisting world view and expand the boundaries of our imagination. If humanity is indeed the subject of a multimillennium process of education, if not genesis itself, it is of fundamental importance that we demonstrate our ability to think, study and teach on a new level." The International Space Sciences Organization can be reached at 1556 Halford Avenue, Suite 110; Santa Clara, CA 95051, PH: 408-395-4378 Hopefully I will be able to read the documents before the new year. On another note, if you are still looking for that perfect Christmas or Hanukah gift for that special someone interested in UFOs, may I suggest the recent CAUS video, Proof Beyond A Reasonable Doubt. The video is only $19.98 plus $3.00 for priority mailing and will be received before the holidays. Information about the video can be obtained by accessing the CAUS website at http://caus.org or click on: CAUS - Citizens Against UFO Secrecy - home page and scrolling to the bottom of the homepage. Have an enchanting Tuesday and of CAUS...watch the skies! Peter A. 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