7

MAJESTIC 12

We have learned in recent years to translate almost all of political life in terms of conspiracy.

—JOHN LE CARRÉ

At the beginning of the book it was mentioned that it was important to understand conspiracy theory if you want to study UFOs. The conundrum can be described quite simply. Either you believe that some secret organization is concealing the information or you are seen as part of the cover-up. Of all of the conspiracy theories related to UFOs, none is more pivotal than Majestic 12.

UFO lore is thoroughly infused with the mysterious Majestic 12. According to the legend, MJ-12, as it is better known, a secret cabal comprised of influential scientists and politically connected intelligence heads, forms the oversight committee that controls all of the clandestine UFO material. Postulation about MJ-12 stems from a number of supposedly leaked documents. The origin of the term is not clear, but first use is sometimes attributed to a teletype dated November 17, 1980, and seen by some researchers early the next year. Since then debate over authenticity has raged among UFO researchers with many of the best minds declaring the material to be deliberate counterfeits. Nonetheless, the conspiracy has taken on a life of its own. For the record there is no truth to the matter, but I am regularly accused of being part of this organization. My response has been to ask about the whereabouts of my paycheck that has never appeared and neither am I involved pro bono.

MJ-12: The Beginnings

MJ-12 came into private view in late 1984, albeit under unusual circumstances. A roll of undeveloped 35 mm film came via the U.S. Postal Service to Jamie Shandera’s home. The film that arrived in his mailbox inside a plain brown envelope had no return address, but bore an Albuquerque postmark. It was only after the film was developed did Shandera learn the contents. Deposited on the negative were a series of papers that would become known as the Majestic 12 Documents. Shandera was working with Bill Moore, who in 1980 had written The Roswell Incident about the famous New Mexico UFO crash. Timothy Good included copies of some of those documents in a book published in the UK. That triggered Moore to publicly announce their existence in the United States in 1987. Eventually Moore made the contents of the documents known to anyone who was interested. These documents are available on the Internet and are covered in fair detail in Stanton Freidman’s book Top Secret/Majic, which he published in 1996.

The promulgating document allegedly comes from President Harry Truman in a September 24, 1947, memorandum for Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. It mentions a conversation between Secretary Forrestal and President Truman and directs that “this matter shall be referred to only as Majestic Twelve.” It also reserves the right of disposition to the Office of the President, and brings Dr. Vannevar Bush, the Director of Central Intelligence, into the loop.

The key document is known as the Eisenhower Briefing Document. Dated November 18, 1952, this eyes-only paper was allegedly prepared for President Elect Dwight Eisenhower. It told him that “Operation Majestic-12 is a Top Secret Research and Development/Intelligence operation responsible directly and only to the President of the United States.” In addition, this paper had a list of names of the membership of MJ-12 as it was initially formed. They included:

— Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter

— Dr. Vannevar Bush

— Secretary James V. Forrestal4

— Gen. Nathan F. Twining

— Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg

— Dr. Detlev Bronk

— Dr. Jerome Hunsaker

— Mr. Sidney Souers

— Mr. Gordon Gray

— Dr. Donald Menzel

— Gen. Robert M. Montague

— Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner

— Gen. Walter B. Smith (who was added after the death of Forrestal)

Certainly this would have been an august body, one worthy of addressing the most pressing needs of the nation. Those familiar with history will recognize the strong connections to the U.S. Air Force and the Intelligence Community. Souers, Vandenberg, Hillenkoetter, and Smith, respectively, were the first four Directors of Central Intelligence, while Gray, Hunsaker, and Menzel all previously held intelligence advisory positions. Berkner had participated on the CIA Robertson Panel.

MJ-12 Versus Watergate

It would be an understatement to suggest that the process for release of the MJ-12 documents was extremely strange and makes little sense. For purposes of discussion of the elements that make the whole Majestic scheme highly unlikely, the comparison with the Watergate scandal that led to the demise of Richard Nixon as President of the United States is enlightening. The underlying similarity is the notion that someone highly placed in the U.S. Government wanted to get very sensitive information into the public domain. In the case of Watergate, they were quite successful. For MJ-12, except for the UFO community, few people have ever heard of this conspiracy-based organization.

The High-level Source Was Known

The differences are enormous, and worth considering when attempting to evaluate the validity of the Majestic documents. We now know that Deep Throat, the code name that The Washington Post attached to the original source, was Mark Felt. At the time Felt was the Deputy Director of the FBI. Of course the Deep Throat moniker related to the famous porno movie of that name.

Felt’s motive for becoming an informant for the media is plagued with controversy. A longtime FBI executive, Felt had been very loyal to the founding director, J. Edgar Hoover. After Hoover’s death, L. Patrick Gray, a lawyer with no experience in the FBI, was appointed as the new director. Those people who suggest that Felt’s motive for divulging the information to the Post was personal note that he did not approve of an outsider assuming the leadership of the Bureau. Felt and other agents believed that the position should have gone to someone with extensive law enforcement experience, possibly Felt himself. Many other observers believe that Felt’s main motivation was patriotic. The Watergate break-in had despoiled the Office of the President, and the Department of Justice was not doing enough to address the problem.

Whatever Felt’s motives, he was clearly in a position to have access to the sensitive data he was revealing. Next, Felt decided to provide the information to two young but experienced investigative reporters. He chose Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein based on their assignment to investigate the Watergate burglary in a major media venue; a perfect fit for this venture. Additionally, Felt had previously been in contact with Bernstein on other routine matters. Therefore, one of the two reporters was known to him and considered reliable. In order to pass information, physical, albeit clandestine, meetings were arranged. The reporters were not to call his office or be seen in public with him. The initiation of those meetings was right out of spy novels. Felt would leave a flowerpot in a designated location, and then he would deposit newspapers with times circled on inside pages. The physical contacts came very late at night, and reportedly often took place in an underground garage in Roslyn, Virginia.

While the public did not know who Deep Throat was, key management personnel in The Washington Post did, including Ben Bradlee, then the editor, and Leonard Downie, Jr., his successor. The circle was very tight and according to Woodward only seven people actually knew Felt’s identity.

The Washington Post Had Credibility and Resources

Obviously the choice of The Washington Post provided a degree of credibility and extensive resources for the conduct of the investigation. It was the most powerful media outlet in the area and had national readership with many of its investigative stories being syndicated worldwide. It also had a long history of tackling difficult and sensitive issues in the capital region and had experience in handling explosive exposés.

Most of the time Felt merely provided clues to Woodward and Bernstein, who would then have to find the people involved and interview them. To support their assertions, the reporters were required to develop independent corroboration, usually from multiple sources. If verification was not available, allegations were not made. The investigation lasted two years and terminated with several officials going to jail, and the first and only resignation of an American president.

But those events did not stop the speculation about the identity of Deep Throat. There were many suspects, several of whom had both access and motive for releasing the information. Finally, in 2005, at age ninety-one, Mark Felt acknowledged that he had been the source of Watergate information for Woodward and Bernstein. It was only after Felt’s public statement and a large article appeared in Vanity Fair that those who had been in the know on The Washington Post confirmed the information.

Now the reader should compare that release of sensitive information with how MJ-12 has proceeded. Begin with the source. As far as is publicly available today, the source of the documents remains unknown to everyone, including the people who released them. Rather than meeting under a bridge late at night, the perpetrator sent an anonymous envelope, not even indicating what the film related to, or even the general topic. There have been no face-to-face meetings between the reporters and their confidential source, nor was there any way to vet him or her.

Rather than approaching The Washington Post, The New York Times, or some other established and credible media outlet with the information, the mysterious MJ-12 surrogate Deep Throat chose to send it to people with very limited experience in reporting and no support mechanism to get the information to the general public. While the documents begged for critical analysis, neither Moore nor Shandera had resources comparable to The Washington Post with which to follow up.

Further, they certainly did not have the means to disseminate their information and get it into mainstream American consciousness. If these sources are to be believed regarding intent, they were not just titillating the already convinced UFO community, but rather the focus was to begin preparing the public for the release of some momentous acknowledgment—that ET was real.

There were other MJ-12 documents released in an equally inglorious fashion. In 1992 documents allegedly were deposited in the mailbox of Tim Cooper at Big Bear Lake in California. The origin of the documents and rationale for this mode of release remains a riddle—one without a good answer.

Then in 1994 photographs of an entire manual purporting to be a guide for Special Operations arrived addressed to known UFO researcher Don Berliner. As with the other documents, there was no return address. However, Dr. Bob Wood was able to track the postmark to Quillin’s Drug Store in the town I grew up in—La Crosse, Wisconsin. Again the document was in the form of a roll of undeveloped 35 mm film. The main thesis of the document seemed to be to verify the former documents and to support the Roswell crash story.

The title of the manual was Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal. It’s annotated as Majestic-12 Group Special Operations Manual, SOM 1–01, and dated April 1954. Most UFO researchers dismiss this document as a total hoax. They include Don Berliner, to whom the package was addressed. Interestingly, both Bob and his son, Ryan Wood, spent considerable time and effort in attempting to authenticate this product and have come to another conclusion. Based on extensive analysis, in which they examined many of the arguments against authenticity, Bob Wood is very sure that the manual was written in 1954.

However, that does not make it a real UFO document. The explanation Bob told me was that he believes the manual was created at the time indicated, but with the intention that it be leaked to Soviet spies as part of a disinformation campaign. As far out as that may sound, it makes more sense than the notion that some special operations unit was training to recover aliens. Both the United States and the Soviets conducted disinformation operations that were designed to mislead the other, frequently with the intent of causing the opponent to commit valuable resources to wild-goose chases.

The CIA and MJ-12

The MJ-12 issue has been raised with the CIA. In an extensive review of the agency’s involvement in UFOs, Gerald Haines, the historian for the National Reconnaissance Office, addressed some of these documents with very firm evidence that they were fraudulent. His report, CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90, ends with this statement: “Dr. Larry Bland, editor of The George C. Marshall Papers, discovered that one of the so-called Majestic-12 documents was a complete fraud. It contained the exact same language as a letter from Marshall to Presidential candidate Thomas Dewey regarding the ‘Magic’ intercepts in 1944. The dates and names had been altered and “Magic” changed to ‘Majic.’ Moreover, it was a photocopy, not an original. No original MJ-12 documents have ever surfaced.”

As with all of the MJ-12 documents provenance remains a critical and unexplained problem. The best answer would appear to be that there are people with too much time on their hands.

The Aviary

One of the Majestic curiosities was the evolution of a mysterious group known to UFO enthusiasts as the Aviary. According to the lore, members of the Aviary were insiders that had access to the government’s knowledge of UFOs. The reality is quite another story, and actually rather laughable.

I do admit to being a member of this group. In fact, I was officially anointed with Hal Puthoff and Scott Jones at a meeting in Dayton, Ohio. While Bob Collins, in his book Exempt from Disclosure, called the meeting, “A summit without cocktails,” it was really quite mundane. Among the others present were Bill Moore and Jamie Shandera who actually controlled the whole Aviary concept. Since Moore and Shandera frequently communicated by commercial telephones, and were being a bit paranoid (which goes with the territory), they wanted a means to talk about people without referring to them by their real names. Thus, they devised a list of bird names that served as a very simple code mechanism.

Puthoff, Jones, and I were given Partridge, Hummingbird, and Chickadee respectively. At least that’s what I’ve been told. To be honest, I have trouble remembering if that is the correct order, though I have seen it in other publications. It was not terribly important at the time, nor did it ever impact any of my research.

The vast majority of the material on the Internet concerning the mystical Aviary is simply amusing. Several people have stated I was known as the Penguin, and even published articles with that title. Others, equally unknowledgeable, have said that I actually run this cabal. All of that information is both false and irrelevant.

The National Archives

All FOIA requests for dated presidential documents are sent to the National Archives for processing as they are the custodians for the White House. What is truly amazing is that there are two sets of documents that are highlighted on the National Archives Web site. One relates to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the other is Majestic 12. That alone should alert the reader as to just how widespread the MJ-12 mystery has become.

One of the key documents that proponents point to as proof of authenticity is what is known as the Cutler-Twining Memo of July 14, 1954. The alleged memo was most conveniently found out of place in a file box at the National Archives by Jamie Shandera. The memo purports to be from Robert Cutler, then a special assistant to the President, and directs General Nathan Twining, then the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, that an MJ-12 briefing will be added to the previously scheduled White House meeting on July 16, 1954. There is no other mention of the subject to be covered as it is assumed that those involved were already cognizant. Of course those steeped in the MJ-12 mystery assume that it refers to research on the Roswell crash.

One of the UFO researchers who studied the Majestic controversy in detail is nuclear physicist and well-known author of UFO books Stanton Friedman. As previously indicated, he wrote a book called Top Secret/Majic that is dedicated to this subject. In the book he explored the Cutler-Twining memo and concluded: “Thus it appears that the Cutler-Twining memo is the real thing, indicating that there was a Top-Secret MJ-12 group.”

Unfortunately, the National Archives does not agree with his premise. They have posted a public response in the hope of forestalling additional requests for Majestic materials. Their comments in the entirety read:

“MAJESTIC 12” OR “MJ-12” REFERENCE REPORT

The National Archives has received many requests for documentation and information about “Project MJ-12.” Many of the inquiries concern a memorandum from Robert Cutler to Gen. Nathan Twining, dated July 14, 1954. This particular document poses problems for the following reasons:

1. The document was located in Record Group 341, entry 267. The series is filed by a Top Secret register number. This document does not bear such a number.

2. The document is filed in the folder T4–1846. There are no other documents in the folder regarding “NSC/MJ-12.”

3. Researchers on the staff of the National Archives have searched in the records of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, and in other related files. No further information has been found on this subject.

4. Inquiries to the U.S. Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council failed to produce further information.

5. The Freedom of Information Office of the National Security Council informed the National Archives that “Top Secret Restricted Information” is a marking which did not come into use at the National Security Council until the Nixon Administration. The Eisenhower Presidential Library also confirm that this particular marking was not used during the Eisenhower Administration.

6. The document in question does not bear an official government letterhead or watermark. The NARA conservation specialist examined the paper and determined it was a ribbon copy prepared on “diction onionskin.” The Eisenhower Library has examined a representative sample of the documents in its collection of the Cutler papers. All documents in the sample created by Mr. Cutler while he served on the NSC staff have an eagle watermark in the bond paper. The onionskin carbon copies have either an eagle watermark or no watermark at all. Most documents sent out by the NSC were prepared on White House letterhead paper. For the brief period when Mr. Cutler left the NSC, his carbon copies were prepared on “prestige onionskin.”

7. The National Archives searched the Official Meeting Minute Files of the National Security Council and found no record of a NSC meeting on July 16, 1954. A search of all NSC Meeting Minutes for July 1954 found no mention of MJ-12 nor Majestic.

8. The Judicial, Fiscal and Social Branch searched the indices of the NSC records and found no listing for: MJ-12, Majestic, unidentified flying objects, UFO, flying saucers, or flying discs.

9. NAJA found a memo in a folder titled “Special Meeting July 16, 1956” which indicated that NSC members would be called to a civil defense exercise on July 16, 1956.

10. The Eisenhower Library states, in a letter to the Military Reference Branch, dated July 16, 1987: “President Eisenhower’s Appointment Books contain no entry for a special meeting on July 16, 1954 which might have included a briefing on MJ-12. Even when the President had ‘off the record’ meetings, the Appointment Books contain entries indicating the time of the meeting and the participants.…

“The Declassification office of the National Security Council has informed us that it has no record of any declassification action having been taken on this memorandum or any other documents on this alleged project…”

Robert Cutler, at the direction of President Eisenhower, was visiting overseas military installations on the day he supposedly issued this memorandum—July 14, 1954. The Administration Series in Eisenhower’s Papers as President contains Cutler’s memorandum and report to the President upon his return from the trip. The memorandum is dated July 20, 1954 and refers to Cutler’s visits to installations in Europe and North Africa between July 3 and 15. Also, within the NSC Staff Papers is a memorandum dated July 3, 1954, from Cutler to his two subordinates, James S. Ia and J. Patrick Cone, explaining how they should handle NSC administrative matters during his absence; one would assume that if the memorandum to Twining were genuine, Lay or Cone would have signed it.

The National Archives responded to my recent FOIA request regarding MJ-12 with the same general language. Even after I specifically stated that UFOs were not the topic of my inquiry, the standard response was mailed. There may be another possibility.

COG: An Alternative Solution

What then could be the reality underlying Majestic 12? Is it possible the organization once existed and that a collection of influential people was brought together for some purpose? The answer may be yes. A reliable, vetted, and confidential source, who states he had access to MJ-12 material, indicated this was a real group. He also indicated that there would be no reports at the Department of Defense level as everything was controlled by the White House. However, he firmly acknowledges that the topics the group was involved in studying had nothing to do with the Roswell crash in particular or UFOs in general.

The following is speculation, but that clue caused me to think seriously about what such a body as MJ-12 might be involved in. It was Hal Puthoff who pointed me toward what could be the real answer—Continuity of Government or COG. For decades this was one of the most highly guarded secrets in America. Formally initiated under President Eisenhower at the height of the Cold War, COG was designed to prevent nuclear decapitation of the U.S. Government. It would appear that some of those plans remain classified and have been adapted to current counterterrorism circumstances. The point is that in those early post–World War II days, nerves were frayed, tensions were high, and a plan for national survival was needed.

We do know that continuation of leadership was a primary concern of President Truman. In 1945, only two months after being sworn into office following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he asked Congress to designate the line of succession. According to the Congressional Research Service, “He [Truman] noted that, in naming his Cabinet members, a President chose his successor, and concluded that, ‘I do not believe that in a democracy this power should rest with the Chief Executive.’ ” Therefore, the idea that President Truman would make continuity of government a primary focus is fundamentally sound.

Very important from an MJ-12 perspective, all of the pieces fit, including timing, mission, and membership. On July 26, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act that realigned and reorganized the U.S. Armed Forces, foreign policy, and Intelligence Community apparatus. It was the National Security Act that created the Air Force as a separate and equal branch of the Department of Defense. The Act also established the National Security Council as a centralized body for coordination of national security policy within the Executive Branch. In addition it created the first peacetime intelligence organization, the Central Intelligence Agency. Notably, this act did not go into effect until September 18 of that year and one day after James Forrestal was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the first Secretary of Defense. The memo from Truman to Forrestal, directing him to initiate Operation Majestic 12 “with all due speed and caution,” is signed just six days later (September 24, 1947). While this memo has not been authenticated, the content is commensurate with activities that followed.

It was under the COG plan that hardened secret underground bases such as Mount Weather in western Virginia were constructed. A few years ago it was revealed that a swanky resort called Greenbrier, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, actually had hidden subterranean facilities and was the place that Members of Congress would be sequestered in case of a nuclear exchange. Amazingly, it is now open to tourists.

However, complex plans, such as COG, do not materialize out of thin air. They require extensive thought and careful planning. The alleged composition of MJ-12 was exactly right for the task of developing a plan to safeguard American leadership. They had the brainpower and experience to tackle such a problem. Further, creating a body of senior advisors was the normal manner by which government agencies approached complex issues such as restoring duly authorized leadership under catastrophic circumstances. In fact, that process of appointing advisors continues to be a widely used norm. Membership of such panels is usually directly related to the level of the office establishing the study. Those named as the MJ-12 constituency dovetails appropriately with a body created that might advise a POTUS. The dearth of written substantiation is also reasonable. Other extremely sensitive projects were known to be conducted with little, or no, paper trail.

In Stan Friedman’s book he goes to great lengths to attempt to explain why Donald Menzel, a harsh UFO critic, would be included on a panel with direct access to material proving his position to be wrong. Stan concluded that it was because Menzel was leading a double life. While he publicly denounced UFOs, Stan contends Menzel was a closet insider and knew that he was intentionally misleading the American people. A much simpler answer would be that Menzel was a member of a group addressing pressing problems of strategic importance that were not related to UFOs. Certainly COG is a perfect fit. They were the right people, at the right time, involved in the right mission. That is, if they ever did exist.

Summary

The MJ-12 myth eclipses all other UFO-related conspiracies and cannot be ignored if one is to engage in research in this field. As noted, the notion has even permeated the National Archives and invokes images of a supersecret cabal that seems near omniscient. While no other organization in the world could function with such nefarious efficiency, believers attribute mystical powers to these keepers of the flame. Having roots deep in the human psyche, this obvious contradiction in capabilities fails to extinguish the deeply held belief that a magical federation controls all aspects of official knowledge regarding UFOs.

It is certain that people will go to great lengths to deceive others, even if there is little tangible to be gained from the endeavor. This is dramatically demonstrated by the plethora of bogus documents that have been discovered. The MJ-12 stories are part of a great game that feeds back on itself and, once ignited, leads into perpetuity. While there is no cabal that relentlessly squashes curious UFO investigators, such a notion is useful in explaining why bad things happen, especially when one’s lifestyle entices danger. The bogeyman still holds a vaunted place in modern society.

There is serious doubt as to whether or not there ever was an organization known as Majestic or MJ-12. However, if such an entity did exist, it had nothing to do with UFOs.

Of great importance was the Apollo program, our manned mission to the moon. Covered in the next chapter is what the lunar astronauts were or were not told about UFOs. That is extremely significant.