(But Not an Apology)

Jim Speiser
10/26/88

Ordinarily, I don't feel I have to explain my actions regarding this
board or this network. I think I've developed a pretty good reputa-
tion for reliability and fairness. I certainly owe nothing in the
way of an explanation to Messrs. Cooper and Lear. However, I can see
where some confusion may have arisen regarding my actions, especial-
ly on the part of Don Ecker, whom I have a great deal of respect
for, and on the part of other users who have discreetly inquired as
to my reasons.

These things always seem to come best in the form of chronologies,
and so, a brief chronology follows.

Bill Cooper first contacted this board with a story of a sighting he
had on board a submarine in 1966. The story (TIRU-1.UFO) was forward-
ed to Vickie Cooper for inclusion in a possible story in UFO Maga-
zine. It was also sent to Stan Friedman for verification. This was
back in August.

I learned from Vickie Cooper that Bill (no relation) had had a con-
versation with her in which the Majestic-12 documents had come up.
When she mentioned the "proword" "MAJIC", he claimed to have seen
that word on several documents back in his days with CINCPACFLT
(Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet). About a week later, I received
the first of many files from Cooper, in which he implied that he had
firsthand contact with or knowledge of individuals connected with MJ-
12. (see GUIDANCE.DOC). He further implied that anyone possessing
this knowledge was in great danger. I forwarded this file to both
Stanton Friedman and Jamie Shandera, to see whether any of the in-
formation in it checked out. I later found out that it did not.

In the meantime, Cooper took a more active role in the public mes-
sage base. He claimed publicly that he had lost his $75,000/year job
as a marketing director, two days after having spoken with Stan
Friedman. He stated that he would not be providing any more info for
this reason. In the meantime, several more documents written by
Cooper filtered through the ParaNet system, by way of our Ft. Smith
board. They were uploaded anonymously, but were written by Cooper.
They each contained the same preamble, which claimed that the info
was for myself and for Stanton Friedman only, and that we were in
great danger for possessing the info contained therein. (DANGER.DOC,
MUGGER.DOC, PICNIC2.DOC).

At around this time, a user named Jeff Felix began using the board,
and asked via chat for a private meeting between him and myself. We
set up a meet at the Jerry's on Scottsdale Road in Tempe (the same
one at which the Phoenix Skeptics hold their monthly meetings.) At
this meeting, Felix, who is all of about 24, told a bizarre tale of
having been an NSA cryptology technician, of having been "fooling
around" on the NSA computer, trying to come up with an encryption
program, and had "stumbled across" the Majestic file, the Aquarius
file, the whole ball of wax. "Its all true," he told us, "the under-
ground bases, the aliens, the crashed saucers, etc." He claimed that
with a modified modem, he could get back in to the files. Naturally,
I was extremely skeptical, and a few days later when I asked Felix a
few questions on the phone, testing his knowledge of the most basic
intelligence terminology, I became flat-out incredulous when he
failed the test. What was even more revealing was that Bill Cooper
had provided me with some of the questions I asked Felix, and I have
a captured chat session with Cooper in which he expressed his doubts
of Felix's veracity.

In my last online chat with Felix, he mentioned something called
Project X-calibur (his spelling). He said he had discussed it with
Cooper on the phone before he had called me. Cooper later told me
that no, Felix had not mentioned it. He told me he had heard of it,
but that it was VERY Top Secret, above his level. He said he didn't
know anything more about it.

Much to my surprise, Cooper later called to tell me that Project
Excalibur is real, that his sources told him it was a project by MJ-
12 to extract technology from the aliens. He told me that it was
important I get in touch with Felix, that if "the kid knows about
[Excalibur], he's for real." Felix, in the meantime, would give me
no information about Excalibur, except that a friend of his who had
done the same thing he had (broken into the NSA's Cray-3 computer,
the most advanced and secure supercomputer in the world), had "stum-
bled across" the Excalibur file.

My thinking on Cooper and Felix at this time began to center on the
thought that the two of them were scamming me behind my back, and I
had visions of having ParaNet become a home for unwed paranoids.
When John LEar returned from his long absence, and began to join
with Cooper in a series of mutual admiration sessions, I saw things
getting out of control.

I knew by now that Cooper was either engaging in fantasy role-play-
ing, or something more sinister. The word "disinformation" has been
bandied about quite freely during this entire MJ-12 mess. Now,
please consider: Cooper's credentials as a Naval NCO with a back-
ground in intelligence seem to check out. His information is self-
contradicting and paranoid, and does NOT check out, at least with
the several intelligence sources I have contacted. After the UFO
COVER-UP broadcast, Cooper sent ANOTHER file by way of ParaNet RHO
in BOISE, called his 10-15-88 Position Paper. In it he completely
contradicts his entire previous thesis, and claims that the MJ-12
scenario as painted by Moore's group (and implicitly, by himself) is
a hoax. Further, he claims to be in full agreement with John Lear
(which agreement seems to be mutual, based on Lear's support of
Cooper). Now I ask you, if agents of disinformation are at work to
discredit the field of Ufology, who is the more likely suspect?
Moore/Shandera/Friedman, who claimed from the beginning to have
videotapes of bona fide government agents, and produced them for
live TV, or Cooper/Lear, who seemingly plagiarized the Moore docu-
ments, gave them a slightly different spin, then turned around and
contradicted themselves the moment it became public knowledge, and
can't even seem to agree with each other, yet support each other
publicly? My locking out of Cooper was actually on the advice of
Cooper himself, who accused William Pitts and the New Project Blue
Book of being a military intelligence cover operation, and ParaNet
of being an unwitting disinformation pipeline. To avoid becoming
such a pipeline, which I'm sure no one here wants, I simply got rid
of the most likely suspect.

As to Lear, I don't think any self-respecting Sysop would stand for
being accused of borderline treason on his public board, especially
from a man who proudly displays in his office enlarged telephoto-
graphs of the installation at Groom Lake, the country's most secret
tactical aircraft development area, obtained by himself after at-
tempting to enter the area illegally. His unqualified support for
Cooper, which seems to be based solely on Cooper's unqualified
support for him, I found distasteful and somehow disturbing, in
light of the fact that Cooper has contradicted Lear's information.
And consider: John Lear entered Ufology in early 1987, when it be-
came known to a few that Moore was going to release MJ-12. Lear is
known to have been a CIA operative in the past. He wears his patriot-
ism on his office walls, in the form of autographed pictures of him-
self standing with G. Gordon Liddy. Again, if disinformation is
taking place, I ask you, who is the more likely source?

And is it working? Well, consider. What if Moore/Shandera/Friedman
DO have the real goods? If so, isn't it a shame that so many
intelligent people, people such as Don Ecker, watched UFO COVER-UP
LIVE, and instead of asking if MSF were for real, began asking if
Lear and Cooper were for real? This, despite the obvious contra-
dictions and obfuscations listed below:

"The documents you are looking for are for the most part labeled TOP
SECRET MAJIC-RESTRICTED DATA" -- Bill Cooper, 22 August

"EVERY DOCUMENT YOU SEE WHICH USES...`MAJIC' IS A FRAUD!" -- Bill
Cooper, 15 October

"The documents produced by Mr. Moore et al are photographic copies
of genuine documents which were procured at great risk." -- Bill
Cooper, 22 August

"I CAN PROVE BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT TO ANYONE THAT MOST OF THE
INFORMATION RELEASED BY WILLIAM MOORE, ET AL...ARE OBVIOUS AND
DELIBERATE FORGERIES." -- Bill Cooper, 15 October

"Hmmm...let me think on that one for a while." -- Bill Cooper, when
I told him that the Aquarius Telex contained a compartmentalized
routing code at the top that indicated to anyone trained in military
communications/intelligence that the document was either fraudulent
or to be ignored for some reason. Phone conversation, 11 October

"The code is ZNY." -- Bill Cooper, phone conversation, 12 October.

"I got it, Jim, I just remembered after I hung up with you, its NOT
ZNY, that means something else, but its _________" (my deletion). --
Bill Cooper, phone conversation, 12 October


"There is a code at the head of the AQUARIUS TELEX that tells me
that the information contained within it is not to be acted upon nor
in any way believed...________ on the telex net informs all stations
that the message CANNOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY...The code is really a
type of slang/graffiti that was used by a lot of enlisted men, and
sometimes by officers. I had a lot of fun with a couple of
Ufologists on that one. THEY STILL BELIEVE THAT THEY WERE TESTING
ME." -- Bill Cooper, 15 October

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Emphasis and deletions above are in the originals except where
indicated.

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