CIA CRITIC'S FACTS ARE FAR OUT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010004-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 12, 2001
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: February 15, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

PHILADELPHIA IITQUIRER
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Despite. the sucxessful efforts ' oI
CIA ~eo tl Sit the CIA to hush up the?cold storage
1J of these little creatures, Cart says
facts are
11
t
far ou
it is. "the- worst kept secret . in
America." He says "at least S00
highly placed pwple in the medical;
profession, the academic world; and
the intelligence community bave ex-:
amined the humanoids and the
craft they41rrive;1 in." . . _.-. _;
One of these ,people, says Card
By JOHN D. LOFTON JR. was. -President : Eisenhower, wbo.
WASHINGTON - As if the saw and actuafl r toucbed.the UFO.
they ? Incident Two. Near New Paltz..
didn't have enough trouble already, N. Y., in Marcbi of 1960, some local.
the folks at the CIA now have to law enforcernent authorities -. e
deny stories that the agency has then the sheriff or the game warden-
suppressed information about crew- - somehow managed to catch a hu-
lures from outer space
The? man making the charges manoid outside his UFO.
about what he calls the CIA's "San-, After day--' in, captivity at CIA.
cergate" scandal, is Robert S. Carr, headquarters (in Langley, Va., says
a former lecturer in mass cammu- Carr - although the CIA was not is
.nications at the University of South its Virginia headquarters until 1961
Florida. Carr says be also once - the humanoid croaked...
worked for Walt Disney on what he When I reached Mr.. Carr at his
says were "highly. classified secret home in Clearwater, Fla., I asked
government projects" involving ' bim what syrt of proof he had. to
nonverbal communication. back up his Weird tales? I asked if
As Carr is telling it in college v.he could refer me to any of the SOO
campus lectures, TV and radio- in- . people - other than President Ei-
terviews, and- to anybody else who senhower - who he says saw the
will listen, the . "facts" are as fol- frozen humanoids. He refused.
lows:
? Incident One. On Feb. 13, ]948,
12 miles west of Aztec, N. M-, a 38- :. i
foot flying saucer made a crash
landing kiting all 12 "little men"
aboard. The bodies were whisked
away to Dayton, Ohio, to Wright .
Patterson Air Force Base where
they remain today in the medical
lab in cryonic suspension. The
whole thing has been covered up-by
the CIA ? .
"Carr said he would not betray his
sources, that be would not "finger"
these individuals' whom he praised
as "people of vision and courage.".
.At Wright-Patterson, I talked with
a very pleasant -captain, Tim Bow-
man, who very patiently explained
that they had had over 130 queries
about Carr's charges: ? He_ read . a
statement. which. said in its en-
tirety: , "There are no little crea-
tures or craft from space at Wright-
Patterson AFB now. There never
have. been., The . report :is. without
foundation." .
Presumably, it's just a matter of
time until Mr. Carr's ~ charges. axe
plastered all over the front page of
our newspapers: And CIA Director
William Colby is forced to on
again trudge up to Capitol Hill: and.
attempt to prove yet one more neg-
ative, one more thing that his age*;
cy has not done.
No doubt, there are times whoa
Mr. Colby wishes someone would
put him in cryonic suspension cntii
this whole thing blows over.
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u:r:u r. yea :yn o ,1ecis
in his new _a o
klorifled, may seen prosak% to
t e sc iVe4?^:33"t u
the supreme adventure of conimunicatinj with heir: s fro: ;
another world, most readers of this
grim'"sy: cseei
and strongly a ?gueel book will have to postpone their
daydreat s and, accepting Mir. Klcess's "plasma eory",
r t4 cone?uda that many UFOs really are .. .
y J. S. Butz, Jr.
HERE are many who will not want to believe that
"flying saucers" really are "balls of ionized fire," a
sort of atmospheric phenomenon as natural as rain-
fall but rare as a waterspout.
First of all, it's too easy. If this is so, why haven't
scientists known about it for years and scotched the
stories that have mushroomed into the modern legend
of the UFO'To believe the "balls of fire" theory, you also must
discount or at least reevaluate the numerous reports of
veteran airline and military pilots, and other competent
trained observers who have seen'UFOs and sometimes
flown close formation with them for many minutes.
Strictly from the technical viewpoint, few people in
the United States are.prepared by formal education,
or otherwise, to accept the concept of natural plasma
-the fourth state of matter, in which a few ounces of
ionized (electrified) air can be kept glowing and re-
strained for significant periods inside a "bottle" formed
by the earth's magnetic field. Flow can these plasmas
grow to diameters of more than 100 feet and, on occa-
sion, maneuver with what appears to be "intelligence"?
A final objection, though one which most of us prob-
ably won't admit, arises from a hope the glowing air
theory is wrong because it tends to eliminate the pos-
sibility of this generation's participating in the greatest
of all adventures-an encounter with beings from an-
other world.
In spite of those objections, most readers of the
-book, U}{ Os-Identiied,* probably will give up their
daydreams and accept the plasma theory as the most
plausible solution to the great flying saucer mystery.
The author, Philip j. Klass, has collected a mass of
data and generated a strong argument to support it.
His conclusion, in effect, is that there has been no hoax
in the majority of the thousands of UFO sightings. He
believes the observers did see something, a plasma,
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290 pp., $6.95 ,F Q`~$ n - ~t?~,1 Y.,
.
CE,Magazina ? Apri( 1'968 __ ;
 and th Ape ros eye FQr tReletalsei 20t01.104/02 v CIA-RQ)P81 R005$0I .000100010004-7 t(-i; years
of the most significant cases of mistaken identity on
scientific record.
vir. Klass's explanation for the lateness in eppre-
Ciating this phenomenon is that the sensationalism
surrounding UFOs has kept serious scientists at a dis-
tance. He doesn't claim to have originated the idea
that UFOs arc a form of Kttgclblitz (ball lightning)
or an electrified plasma of air. But he does make two
innportant contributions. L
One is an exhaustive reporting job, which is sufri-
ciently detailed and restrained to appeal to scientists.
No previous publication comes close to making as
strong a case for the plasma theory. It is likely that
at the very least Mr. Klass's book will provide the
spark: to ignite extensive and badly needed scientific
investigation of the subject.
At the same time, the book has great appeal for the
layman. Mr. Klass relates his experiences as a detec-
tive story-his initial reluctance to consider UFO
sightings seriously, the first suspicions that plasma vas
involved, the occurrences that prompted his decision
to make a detailed investigation of many sightings,
and some of the bizarre adventures that befall one
entering the UFO "community" for the first time.
Virtually anyone interested in UFOs can understand
the book, and those who do will run the risk of be-
coming converts to the plasma theory.
Phil Klass has some unique qualifications for writing
this book, which I can attest to personally, as we worked
together four years on the staff of Aviation Week &
Space Technology, where he is now Senior Avionics
ex _icn e or_ advanced pro ccis at Canerai Electric
before turning to technical reporting, and, he is krowl-
edgeabie about plasmas.
But much more important is his prodigious capacity
for r nor iilg a heir writing. In his s., eei1 years with
Aviatzon Week he has poured out :: volume o stories
that proI)ably \l%011 t eve- be eCini 11 in 'the leCI- C,
reporting iiekl. His record is of the Babe Ruth variety;
few people will conic' close. To top it off, lr. Klass
has a high batting average for accuracy. L -Lc is seldom
The combination is formidableinn it is apparent
a
l iris book, UFOs-idc,-IJ* cd. Ti Ishii is \vrong on this
one, he's picked a lnlu.
But the chances of 11;5 thesis being incorrect seem
small. He reports a survey conducted: by Dr. J. Rand
McNally, Jr., of the Atomic Energy Commission's Oak
Ridge Laboratories. Nearly 16,000 persons were inter-
viewed, and only 513, or 3.2 percent, reported ever
having seen ball Iightning.
Mr. Klass discusses talks with a number of other
scientists who have studied Ktt--elblitz. Some of this
work has related to possible defenses against missiles.
So far this aspect has proved fruitless, but it has pro-
duced several exports in the field. One of them, Dr.
Martin A. Uman of the Westinghouse Research Labo-
ratories, believes that ball lightning is a family of phe-
nomena, one of which can be triggered by the corona-
type of electrical discharge that glows around high-
voltage power lines.
Dr. Uman's corona theory fits right in with Mr.
::all lightning, or
Kitgelblil , is
shown at left in
tinis trine-
expo-Sure photograph
taken liy Dr.
B. T. Vatiliias
in 1961 at Los
Alamos, N. M.
Ball lightning
lzsnally is re-
ported during or
after a thunder-
storm. However,
according to Mr.
Klass, other
forms of natural
plasma have been
triggered on clear
days, at high and
low altitude, by
power line corona
and electrical
discharges from
aircraft.
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l: oto";:?at)'I of
(r i:)
Sit SYceI'-s1ta wuF... of t. a; :'T t+:.a
T'iis s:.:...ce curo
.'#.'1oin a:ie tl cC::o>I O i 'g'h
teiisioa lines. Only the
saucer-shaped llor:ion was
visililc to F neei ::rsd his
companions, suggesting
that the "tail" wits radiating
infrared energy outside of
the visible light portion
of the Spectrum.
Klass's own conclusions. Mr. Klass's investigations
began when he read the book Incident at Exeter, in
which John G. Fuller reported exhaustively on widely
publicized UFO sightings near Exeter, N. H. Mr. Ful-
ler suggested, among other things, that most of the
sightings had taken place near power lines because
the "objects" were seeking the power. Mr. Klass ex-
plains the sightings in the area on the basis of a com-
bination of salt air from the sea, the dry dusty atmos-
phere that summer, possibly extra-high voltage exeur-
A hat USAF Is Doing About UFOs
An independent investigation of UFO sightings is
under wat/ at the University of Colorado. The Air
Force is sponsoring the study, but has given Dr. Ed-
ward U. Condon, the project leader and former direc-
tor of the National Bureau of Standards, a completely
free hand in seeking a valid explanation of UFO
phenomena.
The Colorado .study was initiated about two years
ago after complaints from UFO enthusiasts about the
USAF's "icithholding" of flying saucer information
had reached the thunderous stage. A report from the
Colorado group is due next fall. It will be reviewed
by a special group from the National Academy of
Sciences.
The Air Force also is continuing to record and in-
AIR FORCE Magazine ? April 1968
sions in the power system, and other conditions that
tend to create plasma discharges.
As Mr. Klass records, he believes that virtually all
UFO sightings at low altitude are either out-and-out
hoaxes or can be explained by the corona-discharge
theory.
High-altitude UFOs are another matter, and Mr.
Klass suggests they are triggered by aircraft when at-
mospheric conditions are right. This could occur when
an aircraft accumulates a relatively high electrical
charge and a discharge occurs at the wingtip and
"ignites" water vapor, ice crystals, or pollution products
in the wingtip vortex.
World War II "foo-fighter" reports of glowing fire-
balls shooting past aircraft or flying "formation" for.
many minutes, and more recent UFO reports of large
saucer- and cigar-shaped objects, are similarly credited
by Mr. Klass to this type of phenomena.
Scientific interest has been aroused, and Mr. Klass
reports on conversations with many physicists who are
beginning to look at UFOs as a matter for serious in-
vestigation. Many men are equipped for serious study,
as Ku,,elblitz and plasma are being created experi-
mentally in many laboratories. However, a rigorous
answer to the question is going to take a unique ex-
pert,'se in plasma and atmospheric physics, and to date
no one has suggested an easy method of experimen-
tally proving the theory.
One current need is for more detailed descriptions
of foo fighter and UFO sightings at high altitude.
Anyone who has had such experiences is invited to get
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it plasma in the
process of shorting
out a high-frc(tncnev
radio antenna for the
USAF /:ai:irtin Titan
III launch vehicle
'gyp is shown at right.
tliost antenna deigns
have this type
of vain ail) eliainher
test of broadcasting
characteristics ill a
heal'-space environ-
mclit. Mr. Khls.. cites
such ante) an shorts
as another nlecha-
n.ism for Creating
plasma UFOs in the
atmosphere, and in
space near the earth.
in touch with Mr. Philip Klass through this magazine.
Mr. Klass also is experiencing the saddest aspects of
"UFO fever." Men who have "flown" on saucers, around
the earth, and "to other worlds" are attracting cults of
believers. Some are booked solid on speaking tours,
appear regularly on TV, and are followed about by
newspaper reporters. Some are taking in substantial
sums from their followers.
One young woman recently called Mr. Klass from
Florida to ask his opinion on a move her in-laws were
about to make. They were being encouraged by a
saucer "flyer" to donate their home and savings to an
institute of "cosmic" research and to come to California
to live on a ranch which is "visited" by the saucermen.
The young woman, incidentally, alienated her in-
laws by recommending against the move. She is now
accused of wanting their money herself.
$10,000 OFFER
Philip Klass, author of UFOs -Identified, has not
yet had any takers for his offer to par/ .$10,000 to
ant /one who signs an agreement with him, Mr. Klass
Will pay the .$10,000 when an authentic ext'ratcrres-
trial visitor appears on live television or presents his
credentials to the United Nations, or if a crashed
.spacecraft is found which clearly exhibits construc-
tion techniques from another world. There's one
catch-the other party to the agreement must agree
to pay llr. Klass $250 a year until any of the above
specified events occur.
bargained for.-END
"UFO fever" also has bitten large numbers of repu-
table men and women. The most conservative of their
organizations is NICAP (National Investigation Com-
mittee for Aerial Phenomenon) with about 12,000
members. This group earnestly believes the UFO ques-
tion has not been studied adequately by the govern-
ment and has undertaken to do it itself. NICAP has
sent its investigators all. over the United States and
prepared detailed reports on thousands of sightings.
It has attracted many thousands of man-hours of vol-
unteer time from enthusiasts and maintains a small
full-time staff. ,Most people familiar with its activities,
Mr. Klass included, report they are not out to make a
buck on the UFO craze.
NICAP officials, however, do not put much stock in
,Mr. Klass's plasma theory. One says, "I-Ie is trying to
explain one unknown with another unknown."
Among the rank-and-file UFO believers, however,
there is a strong resistance to Mr. Klass's idea because
it seems to rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial
life, at least in terms of current visits to this small
planet. But this must be recognized as a narrow view.
Certainly it doesn't do justice to UFO enthusiasts of
two decac es ago. They would have looked at many
options for an advanced world sending out space trav-
elers. Solid "earth-style" vehicles piloted by what has
become the stereotype "little green men" are only one
possibility. Who is to say that advanced civilizations
cannot-or do not-travel in plasma form? After all,
it is now well known that the universe itself is ninety-
nine percent plasma, and an earth type assemblage of
atoms is an occurrence of relative rarity.
Mr. Klass may have started far more than even he
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Available
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