(From the April 2007 issue of UFO Magazine)

By Larry W. Bryant

In chapter 14 ("Black Manta") of his seminal study of Roswellian intrigue -- Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51 (Villard Books -- 1998) -- author Phil Patton observes: "The world of ufology is as racked by jealousy and inbreeding as any academic discipline ever dreamed of being."

As one who knows all too well how easily you can find yourself entangled in the UFO-research community's internecine ideological warfare, I try, nowadays, to keep that knowledge in perspective. Shortly after Patton's book hit the bookshelves, the wife of a Methodist minister advised me: "Larry, don't fret over these spats -- even church boards-of-directors have been known to fight like spoiled kids over this or that policy or program." She might have added: just stay focused on what's important to your individual goals, and strive for teamwork when it's practical to do so.

Since then, I've come to realize that UFOlogy has one branch of inquiry that seems immune to infighting, one-upmanship, and dogmatic posturing: historical research.

Of course, the best practitioners of UFOlogical history-telling happen to be those who've contributed to that history. People like Richard Hall and Barry Greenwood, for example. But their number is aging and dwindling. They still need us -- and we need them. Alas, I have some sad -- but not unexpected -- news to report: Barry Greenwood of Stoneham, Mass., co-author of the 1984 classic "Clear Intent: The Government Cover-up of the UFO Experience," has suspended publication of his periodical "U.F.O. Historical Revue."

In his 10-page, swan-song issue (No. 12 -- September 2007), Greenwood laments that "This will be the last print number of UHR. Rising costs combined with virtually nonexistent subscriptions spell nonfeasibility." Further on, in his "Farewell for Now," he notes: "The UFO topic has been marginalized to the extent that we now see little mention of it in the popular press. Or for that matter, we see little of any kind of press outside that of the hard-core 'graybeards,' those over 50 who were there from early on, knocking out little publications like this one. So, for now, the 'Net' will be the medium of choice for new discoveries."

Greenwood's bowing out of the print side of UFOlogy needn't be all that sharp or final. We still have the (now-monthly) pages of UFO magazine to whet our appetite for that old-time feel of authority, timeless intellectual curiosity, and the grassroots sense of communal inquiry/activism. How about it, Barry: won't you consider an occasional (historical) contribution to this last bastion of periodical UFO literature? You know how much I revere your monumental collection of UFOlit -- one that for decades has rivaled my own. Please consider mining it for such gems as those you've shared with us in your Revue!

In the meantime, we can take solace in knowing that Dick Hall's Journal of UFO History (A Publication of the Donald E. Keyhoe Archives) now is entering its fourth year. In the January-February 2007 issue's editorial, he points out: "Quite a few of the older-generation activists (myself included) find little substantial current information to analyze, and so devote their time to creating a permanent historical record for future generations. This is a worthy activity deserving of your support. Leading the way is Fran Ridge's NICAP [successor to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena] web site (http://www.nicap.org). Other very worthy projects have been listed in previous issues and will be in future issues." Dick's own web site is: http://www.hallrichard.com .

Echoing (somewhat) Greenwood's assessment, Hall's editorial adds that "The comparative absence of current 'classic' sightings and the influences of the Internet have changed UFO study altogether. I would say mostly for the worse. Wild speculation is rampant and scholarly research is rare."

However future scholars and historians may view the wealth of UFO history produced by Greenwood, Hall, Loren E. Gross, Wendy Connors, and just several others, we can draw comfort from knowing that the publisher of UFO magazine never will lose sight of the inestimable value of that material.

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Larry W. Bryant's 2007 book "Conjuring Gretchen: The Saga of Virginia's Preacher-Hypnotist" (available from http://www.galdepress.com ) happens to contain only a smidgeon of UFO-related text). He welcomes readers' comments via his e-mail address: overtci@cavtel.net .

(From the June 2007 issue of UFO Magazine)

By Larry W. Bryant

Lest any readers of this column conclude that its author has a sole dimension when it comes to book-collecting (i.e., his substantial stock of UFOana), let him state, for the record, that his bibliophilia does have multiple levels of acquisition.

For example: somewhere squirreled away in my 800-square-foot home lies my 37-year-old collection of books, articles, and essays composed by persons who've spent time as a patient receiving "treatment" in a mental hospital. These published personal narratives from all walks of life, ranging from a pro-baseball player and a Hollywood star to writers and a clergyman, date back to the start of the 20th century.

As I earnestly pursued this material, I came to realize its permanent value to medical practitioners/researchers, mental-hygiene activists, and literary scholars. Canvassing libraries, used-book stores, and flea markets, I felt compelled to help preserve such an insightful, inspirational glimpse behind society's curtained subculture of the institutionalized. So, I embarked on a project to synopsize the contents of each item, whereby many a night I'd sit down, during or after supper, and commit my hand-written notes to 3- by-5-inch index cards. The goal: to produce a book-length annotated bibliography of my entire collection.

Eventually, I discovered that at least three other such bibliographies already had been published. Of course, that discovery dampened my enthusiasm for continuing the project, but I tried to tell myself: "Hey, those other surveys focused on the material's clinical value, whereas mine will highlight its literary value." Over the ensuing years, the project died of benign neglect -- but, to this day, I remain on the look-out for newly published memoirs of ex-mental patients.

That abandoned bibliography project had been cross-nurtured by an earlier seed for a similar one, which also begs for resumption -- and which brings us to why you should continue reading this column.

Fifty years ago -- for his inaugural (June 1957) issue of Flying Saucers magazine -- the late, former science-fiction publisher-editor Ray Palmer ignited a pulp-paper trail of public inquiry, debate, and entertainment that lasted about 20 years. (If you even can find a copy of that first issue, expect to pay as much as $100 for it; the cover price at the 1950s newsstand? -- 35 cents.)

In the last issue -- No. 92 (June 1976); 75 cents per copy -- Palmer devoted a lengthy editorial to the economic folly of continuing Flying Saucers as a separate publication, announcing its forthcoming merger with his older, Fortean-focused periodical, SEARCH. Not long afterwards, SEARCH folded.

Back in the late 1960s, as the proud owner of every issue of Flying Saucers, I asked myself: "What if I were to do an annotated bibliography of this soon-to-be classic in UFO literature? Would there be a market for it?" In my late twenties at the time, I had every reason to jump right in. For one thing, it would be good writing practice. It also would help me create a higher "author's profile" for myself (even though the booklet might never arrive at a commercial printing press). And it would help promote and preserve the historic value of Palmer's pet project. So, I dug out my trusty pack of 3-by-5 cards and began, issue by issue, to index and comment upon each major article/column/letter-to-editor.

Alas, a marital breakup (an inescapable fact-of-life among UFOlogists, doncha know?), a job relocation, and other pressing factors of economic survival intervened to put this project on the back burner with the other one. And there it remains.

Now, I need your input on the burning question: in this age of self-publication and print-on-demand-publication technology, should I reopen the FS-mag project and thereby help fulfill its preservation promise? Please e-mail me your thoughts/suggestions on this prospect (at: overtci@cavtel.net).

Meantime, should you ever run across a bargain-priced memoir of an ex-mental hospital patient, please let me know -- especially if the memoirist also happens to have been a UFOlogist.

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Larry W. Bryant's latest distraction from matters UFOlogical consists of his e-serialized book "The Bu$ch-Cheezey Impeachment Chronicles" -- available at the Web site of http://www.bushbusiness.com/Bryant_OP.htm .

(Originally published in the November 2006 issue of UFO Magazine)

By Larry W. Bryant

When the UFO mystery finally gets solved, imagine how valuable will be
the several privately owned, comprehensive collections of UFO
literature that dot the East Coast. In my own case, my scores of
books, pamphlets, magazines, reports, government documents, and
newspaper clippings are augmented by what I regard as the world's
largest collection of UFO-related cartoons.

I use that superlative because of my having merged my own 45-year-old
[now 47 as of July 2008] collection with photocopies of the collection
once maintained at the Washington, D. C., headquarters of the
now-defunct National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena
(NICAP). Now, what we're talking about here are three 2-inch-thick
three-ring binders full of cartoons and comic strips, each cartoon
mounted on a single sheet of white paper and documented when possible
with date and place of publication. Then, of course, the collection
is rounded out by a classic 1968 paperback anthology called "UFO -- Ho
Ho! Cartoons for Flying Saucer Lovers" (Popular Library, 1968) by
Joseph Farris, which contains about a hundred cartoons ranging from
UFO hardware to depictions of exobiology.

My collection is driven by a sense that, besides its comic relief in
what can be a somber subject, the UFO-related cartoon serves as a
barometer of public concern or public indifference, depending on the
cartoonist's message and on your interpretation. That public-issue
aspect ranges over such elements of the UFO controversy as alien
hardware or the flying-saucer-type craft and their effects on
earth-bound percipients; exobiology or the premise that some UFOs are
somebody else's spaceships piloted by the now-cliche representation of
wiry little green men; cosmic xenophobia or fear of the presence of
unknown, superior entities behind the alleged UFO visitations; the
science-fiction themes of invasion from outer space and monsterism, as
well as the anthropocentric rendition of human values and motivations
ascribed to the invaders; and government cover-up and foul-up of the
UFO experience.

One of the earliest items in my collection represents a subgenre that
I call reverse-imaging -- the act of depicting Martians perplexed over
the notion that THEY are not alone in the universe. This particular
cartoon comes from one of the syndicated series, titled "Grin and Bear
It," and it shows a deelybopper-clad member of the "Mars National
Observatory" lecturing three of his colleagues as he points to a photo
of Planet Earth: "It's possible there may be life on Earth! . . .
Those mysterious lines don't look like canals to me! . . . They look
like freeways!" This reversal or O'Henry-type of message appears in
another undocumented cartoon gleaned from the NICAP files: two
earth-grown astronauts, having just embarked from their rocketship
upon an alien world, have encountered in the desolate landscape a lone
being who in the cartoonist's language of French is explaining, "Je
suis moi-meme un etranger." ("I am a stranger also.")

Then we have, from another syndicated cartoonist, "The Strange World
of Mr. Mum," which shows an antenna-topped, multilimbed creature
perusing an alien newspaper as he lingers next to an Earth-based
vending stand labeled "Out-of-Town Papers." Two different cartoons,
one from Canada's Winnipeg Tribune, show an alien, his spaceship
landed on the earth's surface, inside a telephone booth asking the
operator for long distance.

Famous Chicago Sun-Times syndicate Bill Mauldin penned on August 15,
1965, an earth-orbiting saucer with its two occupants peering down
with the comment, "A planet three-quarters covered with water couldn't
possibly support life."

And perhaps the ultimate twist occurred on June 1, 1963, when Saturday
Review magazine showed two needle-nosed, needle-craniumed critters
peering out from the gondola of their hot-air balloon, one of them
opining, "I'll bet we're thousands of years ahead of any other
civilization."

Even the field of UFO abductions fails to escape the light hand of the
cartoon master, as witness a full-page, four-frame item from the May
1964 issue of Playboy magazine: an earthling is seen strolling past a
newly painted lamp post in the park next to a large clump of trees. A
Wet Paint sign entices the man to touch the post, whereupon, to the
glee of a gigantic, multiarmed alien peering from behind the trees,
the man finds his hands stuck to the post.

As the poor fellow struggles to free himself, the alien proceeds to
grab him and place him into a large Mason-type collection jar with
breathing holes punched in the lid. In the process, one of the
alien's arms bears a paint brush, which is used to cover up the
smeared paint. The final frame shows a little old lady eying the sign
as the walks her dog into the area, the alien's space-helmet antenna
barely visible behind the tree clump.

Along the same vein, on June 24, 1964, the syndicated cartoon
character Ziggy is shown inspecting a trap consisting of a box propped
up by a forked stick from which leads a string into the inside of a
landed saucer. The bait beneath the box reflects the earthman's
supposedly irresistible delicacy: a hamburger with a bag of
french-fries and a soda pop.

That scene recalls one of my earliest specimens clipped from The New
Yorker magazine back on May 28, 1955. In the clearing of an earth
valley, a saucer hovers above a family of aliens disembarked for the
purpose of setting up a picnic. As the little visitors go about their
chores, complete with a blanket spread on the ground with an opened
picnic basket, a group of armed U. S. soldiers concealed by bushes in
the foreground looks on in expectation of a confrontation. One of the
soldiers announces: "This isn't going to be as tough as we figured."

One of the most frequent sources of UFO-related cartoons was the old
Saturday Evening Post. During the Air Force's UFO public-relations
debacle in 1966 when such glib official explanations for UFO reality
as swamp gas met with derision from the news media, the Post offered
two perspectives. The first shows a group of 1930-vintage aborigines
frantically pointing skyward at a circling biplane.

At the center of the group, an unimpressed witch doctor, his arms
folded haughtily across his chest, sneers, "Swamp gas." The other
cartoon shows an American astronaut sitting on a moon rock, his
spaceship in the background and the earth shining brightly in the
distance. He's asking a squat little alien who has come up to him for
a chat: "Come on, level with me. Have you people been buzzing our
swamps?"

Of course, America has no corner on UFO humor. Even the former Soviet
Union's Sputnik magazine occasionally joins the game. The August 1967
issue, for example, has a four-frame item starting off with a
fisherman dozing in his rowboat on a lake. The next frame shows a
flying saucer plunging into the water next to the rowboat, rudely
awakening the fisherman, who, in frame number three, proceeds to
return to his half-sleep state. The fourth frame shows the fisherman
startled once again -- this time because his fishing rod has snared an
alien from the sunken saucer.

Lately, I've noticed a new subgenre of UFO-related cartoons, those
that help advertise a product or service. For example, in 1978 two
nighttime campers are preparing to turn in to their tent. One of them
is pouring a cup of coffee outside, looking away from the tent, over
which hovers a huge saucer with a series of mechanical tweezers
snatching up earthly artifacts from the countryside. As the camper in
the tent peers up in horror at the impending abduction, the
coffee-pourer is responding: "My insurance company? New England
Life, of course. Why?"

A New York Times ad in 1985 shows a middle-aged suburbanite in his
backyard being addressed by an eager little alien debarked from a
landed saucer: "We've come to learn more about your Enviro-Spray."
Then there's a 1986 Sony Corporation ad showing in one frame a woman
on a golf green being videotaped by her husband as she lets go with
her putt, while, in the left-side frame, a father-son-family-dog trio
is having fun as the father aims his video camera at a hovering saucer
with occupant smiling for the camera.

Once in a while, a UFO cartoon falls flat, either because the drawing
fails to measure up to the reader's expectations or because the
message gets lost in delivery. Such is the case with the winning
entry in the U. S. Defense Intelligence Agency's January 1984
"Security Poster of the Month" contest. It shows a four-drawer
records safe with its bottom drawer partially opened. That drawer is
experiencing a collision from a single-occupant flying saucer. The
textual message declares, "Security is no accident . . . it has to be
practiced!" Maybe they should hold a contest on how best to interpret
the UFO graphics of this poster.

Not too long ago, one of my e-mail correspondents, upon learning of
the manuscript of this essay, sent me the following query: "About 15
years ago I clipped a cartoon from a daily newspaper -- forget which,
forget when -- which I promptly lost in my mountain of [mess].

"I've always regretted it, because it was so 'right on.'

"It was a teacher at a blackboard explaining the difference between
evolution and creation. He's pointing to the corner of the blackboard
with his teacher's stick to a goofy UFO drawn in chalk, saying: 'And
this is MY theory!'

"Do you know anyone who collects UFO cartoons who might have that one on file?"

Unfortunately, if the above-sought item does repose somewhere in my
files, I'm going to have the same problem as my correspondent's, since
I reside in the World's Largest Filing Cabinet.

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Larry W. Bryant directs the Washington, D. C., office of the
public-interest group Citizens Against UFO Secrecy. His book "UFO
Politics at the White House: Citizens Rally 'round Jimmy Carter's
Promise" is available from Galde Press, Inc. (
http://www.galdepress.com ). He welcomes communication from the
public at his e-mail address: overtci@cavtel.net .

_________________________________

[LWB Update for July 26, 2008: Having recently commissioned artist
Harry Finley ( http://www.finleyart.com ) to produce three UFOtoons
based on my own ideas for them, I'm attaching them here, as per my
license from him (the copyright owner), for your entertainment and
inspiration. Please let me know if you'd like to see more of the same
some time in the future.]

(Originally published in the October 2007 issue of UFO Magazine)

By Larry W. Bryant

Over the past several years, the world of UFOlit-publishing has received a technological injection of vital fluid -- enough to keep the presses rolling for generations to come as this niche attracts new and old writers alike in their quest to find loving homes for their memoirs, UFO-encounter case studies, bibliographic analyses, novelizations, and polemical pronouncements.

I'm talking about the cultural revolution engendered by combining the Internet's transmittability of files with the printing industry's development of print-on-demand (POD) publication. We all know that anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can become an instant publisher -- via creating one's own web site, contributing to others' web logs, submitting commentary to various newspapers' web sites' forums, etc.

For example: for the past several months now, I've been serializing my book-length satire The Bu$ch-Cheezey Impeachment Chronicles upon the web site of http://www.bushbusiness.com/Bryant_OP.htm . And, several years ago, my first book's 20-some-year-old manuscript finally saw the light of day when Arlington, Va.-based POD publisher Invisible College Press brought it out as UFO Politics at the White House: Citizens Rally 'round Jimmy Carter's Promise (now in the updated 2005 edition from Galde Press, Inc.). If we still were living in the mid-eighties, neither I nor many of you yet-to-be-published book authors would succeed in overcoming all the obstacles to conventional publishing of UFO literature. (If only Ben Franklin could see us now!)

When you peruse recent issues of Bob Girard's Arcturus Books' catalog, you'll note the growing trend toward POD publishing of UFO tomes. It seems that, unless you're a Whitley Strieber (with agent), you'll be pounding futilely upon the cold, closed doors of the mega-sales book publishers if you possess anything short of the ultimate UFO-book manuscript. Sure, you can go the route of total self-publication -- forking out hard cash to a printing company, housing your own shelf stock, selling copies by mail, paying for your own advertising, etc. -- but you may not have the stomach (or up-front funding) for such a labor-intensive and time-consuming ordeal.

Enter the POD genie. Your wish becomes the book buyer's fulfillment: (s)he can order as few as one copy or as many as hundreds, and -- ta-da! -- off they'll come from the press in a couple of weeks' time. You'll have to enter into a formal contract with the publisher, but you'll have lots more control over the process and over your rights than were you to deal with a conventional publisher. And you'll be paying no commission fees to an agent. The saved time will help you stay busy cranking out other POD-prospect projects. Of course, you might get lucky in having your POD-published book attract the attention of an agent or of a conventional publishing house -- especially if your sales record reaches the thousands.

Peruse a couple of the newsstand's writers magazines to compile your own list of POD companies to approach. At the high end of the service-fee scale, Amazon.com's subsidiary booksurge.com levies a hefty processing fee; whereas, at the low end, lulu.com charges next to nothing. In between, you'll find that such niche publishers as invispress.com and anomalistbooks.com would better serve your literary rapport and advertising needs than would most other POD outfits. Of course, depending on your own editorial prowess and on the availability of funding, I'd urge you to retain the services of a professional ghost-writer/book doctor to polish your material into final form before submitting it for POD publication.

If you happen to have an out-of-print book crying out for reprinting and/or updating, I can assure you of Anomalist Books' track record in doing just that (e. g., as with their reprinting of a series of books by the late D. Scott Rogo).

Imagine: POD from cradle to grave. Who knew!?

[LWB Update for July 15, 2008: As you ponder the POD alternative, you'll note that it can achieve symbiosis with the ease of today's new blogging software. For example, with the advent of such user-friendly blog-hosting sites as offered (for free, by the way) by http://posterous.com, the leap from cybertext to printed-bound text (and vice versa) has become shorter. By establishing your own blog keyed to your already-published work or to selected works-in-progress, you'll not only have a tool for attracting prospective agents but also a worldwide-access resource for publicizing your work and building a writerly platform for the future.]
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Larry W. Bryant's second book, "Conjuring Gretchen: The Saga of Virginia's Preacher-Hypnotist," has bypassed the POD system by being published, in the summer of 2007, by a small press in Lakeville, Minn. -- http://www.galdepress.com . He remains reachable at his e-mail address: overtci@cavtel.net .

LWB Note (July 12, 2008): The following excerpt comprises chapter 7 of my book "UFO Politics at the White House: Citizens Rally 'round Jimmy Carter's Promise" (2005 edition, published by Galde Press, Inc. -- http://www.galdepress.com). As you peruse my commentary preceding the Letter No. 1-27, you might wish to re-read Item 2.3 of this blog ("An Exercise in Naval Contemplation," which as of this posting appears to be the most frequently viewed item). Today, by the way, I've sent the draft of my related column to the editor of UFO magazine, under the title "Who's Steering America's UFO Ship of State?" Look for its appearance at your local newsstand sometime this autumn.
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== Chapter 7. Jimmy Carter's Naval (UFO) Intelligence ==

When it was posted upon the internet, this chapter presaged a paradigm-shifting press conference held May 9, 2001, at the National Press Club Building in Washington, D. C. -- subject: official evidence of UFO-E.T. reality, as disclosed by persons privy to that evidence. Some of the event's speakers formerly served with the Navy. (For a round-up of the ensuing media coverage, visit the web site of researcher Paul Nahay: http://pnahay.home.sprynet.com/ ; click on "Paul's UFO Page.") Certain U. S. Navy agencies/officials have been up to their necks in managing and sustaining the UFO cover-up -- a fact probably not lost on former Navy officer Jimmy Carter. [LWB]

1-27. -- Dear Mr. President:

I am a 34-year-old NESEP (Naval Enlisted Scientific Education Program) Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy serving in the restricted line, 1610, (Cryptologic Officer) and am writing only as a private citizen. I was formerly an EM 1 (SS) in the Nuclear Power program and have served as an Assistant Weapons Officer on an SSBN. I proudly hail from Valdosta, Ga.

For eight active years, plus six years of enthusiastic interest, I have followed the UFO phenomena as close as my duties have allowed. In that time, I have investigated a few minor cases; I have lectured in favor of more public awareness and understanding of the matter; I have listened to many different peoples' experiences with the phenomena and have actively corresponded with many of the creditable personalities presently working on a solution to this mystery.

I am aware of the article which appeared in the June 8th, 1976, National Enquirer, and I understand that it was probably one of the many low key interviews conducted during your campaign. The article indicated that you had experienced the UFO phenomena and that you would release any and all information on UFO's which our Government holds, should you be elected. However, the only information the Air Force has ever publicly admitted it had has been released, and no other Department has ever let itself become associated with the matter, at least in the public eye.

There are many who have for years believed, and some still do, that the Air Forces' Project Blue Book was a cover-up for some other Air Force project, studies being conducted by the National Science Foundation, NASA, or some other Government supported agency. There are others who are beginning to see that this was and is probably not the case. This is in itself somewhat disappointing in that not looking into this phenomena may be as foolhardy as attempting to explain all such experiences away as figments of the imagination.

I have heard of sightings which were experienced aboard Navy ships, on board Naval Stations, and by Navy personnel on their off duty time. I have heard of cases where Air Force Officers would speak quite freely of UFO's over cocktails but would at the same time state that to mention such officially would probably jeopardize or end their career. These things happen but the information seldom reaches the people studying UFO's.

In May of 1976, two young French scientists, in search of an explanation as to why some of the reported UFO's could accelerate through or apparently travel faster than sound without a sonic boom, conceived a workable theory allowing for this observed phenomena, a proof that the marriage of science and UFO research can be viable and productive. With no support of such efforts in this country, we will find ourselves playing "catch-up" again in the future, as we did in the 60's with the space program.

I believe that our Government not only needs to make any and all UFO data available, but, further, that official statements should be brought forward declassifying all such data in all forms. Such statements extending to the point of lifting debriefing restrictions on all Department of Defense personnel and other Government Officials who have any knowledge of any data or experiences involved with UFO's or similar anomalies. Further, that any one having such information be invited to bring it forward, and should doubt exist as to the information's possible National Security impact, that they forward that information through their respective intelligence service, who would sanitize it for release to interested investigative bodies.

Such an official attitude would prevent ships' OOD's from saying "Let's not enter this mess in the deck log" and would help generate an acceptance of this phenomena such that much more than 10 percent of the experiences which occur would come forward for review and data base formulation. Such declarations would hopefully bring reams of new reports, which would be a monumental task to sort through, but would be welcome information to aid in the solution of this problem.

In my past duties, and in particular in my present duties, I have become fully aware of this Government's capability of maintaining the classification of information of a National Security nature. In any case I am aware that there may be valuable information concerning UFO's in official documents, logs, and messages that would probably not be released cursorily. Specifically, there are classified instructions within the Departments of Defense and other Departments which require holding back such information which might be found in U.S. Navy ships' deck logs, CIC logs, and/or other records of all classifications.

Through their own efforts, The Center for UFO Studies, of Evanston, Illinois, has made some inroads for "work load permitting" cooperation from some Government agencies. An effort which could be and should be widely expanded through Government action, allowing quick breakthroughs to Department of Defense levels, who could be most helpful, considering their assets.

I propose, in addition to releasing information, that some Department or agency, closely allied to the intelligence services, assign at least one person, with some knowledge of the UFO phenomena, to screening information which may come through the various agencies and further be tasked with reviewing those channels of communications which may produce UFO related information. In addition, this office could become the liaison between the Government and the public, saving some embarrassment, when, as I feel it must, the public brings this subject back to official door steps.

Over the nearly thirty years of UFO history, the phenomena has remained highly and emotionally argued in the scientific community. Only a few parallels in history can compare with the controversy thus far evoked by this enigma. To present, our self-indulged task has moved very slowly forward due to the pressure of ridicule, official disclaim, and unsubstantiated fear, and, thus, so our future looks without some form of understanding, cooperation, and encouragement. We of the UFO community but ask for that understanding, cooperation, and encouragement.

Steven M. Greer, M.D., America's high-profile, indefatigable proponent for full, official UFO-E.T. disclosure ( http://www.disclosureproject.org ), spoke before an audience of 400-plus Denverites on July 9, 2008, resulting in an article in the next day's edition of the Rocky Mountain News about the event ("E.T. Vote Put on Hold" -- http://tinyurl.com/6avsat ). ).

The newspaper's web site offers readers a comments section about the piece. So far, 99 percent of the commentary posted there has a single thing in common: the mob-rule instinct for mounting ad-hominem attacks upon the bearers of news that some of the reported UFO encounters represent hardware from elsewhere.

Here's an example: "Peckman [the chief coordinator of the proposed ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver] and his ilk are morons and I give them the Philip J. Klass curse: . . .." As you peruse the comments section, you'll note that -- surprise! -- most of the more caustic comments emanate from those posters with the most obscure screennames.

For my part, I've posted the following comment:

== Greer-ing up for Maximum Disclosure ==

By LarryWBryant

While the Denver E.T.-commission ballot initiative's certification remains "on hold" until next spring, the garnering of voters' signatures on the signature petition continues apace. The same goes for the supportive online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/etaffair/petition.html . Indeed, the number of countries represented by those signatories continues to grow as more citizens of Earth become aware of the project.

Too many Denverites, alas, remain on the platform as the UFO-E.T.-awareness/disclosure train is chugging from the station. Come on, folks: kick the knee-jerk habit of willful ignorance/fear/disdain and hop aboard this people's quest for greater knowledge, accountability, and enlightenment.

(from the August 2004 issue of FATE Magazine ( http://www.fatemag.com ) -- reprinted here with permission of the copyright holder, Galde Press, Inc.)

By Larry W. Bryant

Imagine yourself entering a U. S. federal courtroom to do pro se litigative battle for the principle of greater official UFOIA (UFO freedom of information and accountability). Further imagine yourself with no legal credentials whatsoever, no hope of winning even half of your case, and no hope of garnering much support from the UFO-research community.

But little ol' hopeless you decide to press on anyway, armed with the conviction that if YOU won't mount the challenge, then who will?

The actual challenge in question -- which reached its 20th anniversary on July 7, 2003 -- came as a surprise to all concerned: the respondent (the secretary of the Air Force), the assigned judge (the late Oliver Gasch of the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia), and the "jury" (the world of UFOlogy and beyond).

And the challenger/petitioner happens to be one Larry W. Bryant, director of the Washington, D. C., office of the public-interest group Citizens Against UFO Secrecy.

Show Us the Bodies!

My vehicle for this act of "imagination" (to use Gasch's descriptor) consisted of a "Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Extraterrestrial."

As I plodded through the law library near my home, I asked myself a key question: by what means might I extend my litigative foot-in-the-door of officialdom's UFO sanctum? The question almost answered itself. I started with a proven tactic in problem-solving: First, define the problem. Easy enough. The anniversary of the Roswell incident was just a few weeks away, and all I had to do was to focus on its core elements. I chose the one that had received too little serious attention (up to then) from the mainstream news media: the current whereabouts of the USAF-retrieved alien bodies. If the anecdotal crashed-saucer reports then being collected by UFOlogist Leonard H. Stringfield had any merit whatsoever, then perhaps a best-case selection of them would help show the court just how close he was getting to the "smoking gun" of the bodies' whereabouts.

As I awaited receipt of Len's synopsis of his six key cases, I continued by research in preparation for the petition. I learned that the centuries-old Latin term "habeas corpus" means "you may have the body" -- a legal motion meant to bring the accused and/or detained person before a judge to determine the reason and lawfulness for his detention. I chose the suffix "extraterrestrial" for at least two reasons (a) to help modernize this ancient artifact of common law by bringing it into the realm of "metalaw (a.k.a. "space law"); and (b) to add a catchy, quotable tag to a household legal term.

"And just what about those 'alien bodies'?" you ask. "Don't they have to be ALIVE in order to qualify for this special discovery procedure?" That same question occurred to me, of course; but my brief, superficial research into habeas corpus case law could find no requirement that the "body" at issue be currently alive. Besides, who really knew, at this point, how many of the retrieved UFOnauts had failed to survive their violent arrival on terra firma? So I proceeded on the assumption that the U. S. government had no legal right to withhold the bodies (alive or dead) from the custody and care of their bereaved family members.

To bolster my legal standing for initiating this lawsuit, I introduced a novel rationale: by this petition, I sought to perform, on behalf of the detained space aliens, a "citizen's DISarrest" -- by which the court would reverse the government's illegal action. The logic worked for me: if a witness to a felony can perform a citizen's arrest of the felon, then why can't a witness to (or reporter of) an illegal governmental arrest take action to nullify that arrest? But would this logic work for the court?

Preparing the Petition

My research and theory-development now complete -- and my notes now organized and reviewed -- I was ready for the petition's drafting stage. Instead of settling down before my desk at home, or upon a table at the local library, I chose as my drafting venue the spare, captive interior of a Greyhound bus -- on my way to visit relatives in Newport News, Va., about 200 miles from Alexandria.

Within an hour or so, I'd devised a format that seemed to have enough official style to elicit more than a casual glance from its intended recipients.

Upon my arrival in Newport News, I realized that this handwritten draft soon was to take on a life of its own. Curiously, that life may have had more of an impact upon conventional jurisprudence than upon organized UFOlogy.

Back home in Alexandria, I set about typing the draft into its final form, using my trusty Royal- standard manual typewriter. Then I assembled its three exhibits, as follows:

A. The now-famous March 22, 1950, memorandum to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover from the Washington, D. C., Field Office's special-agent-in-charge (Guy Hottel) -- included in the petition as documentary evidence that the U. S. government possesses at least three crash-landed "flying saucers" and their deceased, apparently alien crew of three occupants per saucer. (My 1988 freedom-of-information lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation succeeded in revealing that this originally suppressed account originated via a "local law-enforcement" officer's relaying details to an Air Force investigator; alas, the bureau insists that to reveal either person's identity would violate their privacy.)

B. The September 25, 1980, letter to researcher Richard H. Hall from the Army's counterintelligence director at the Pentagon, admitting that back in the 1950s his office had operated a UFO-related project (albeit ostensibly informal and loosely recorded) called the "Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit."

C. The first page of a heavily censored TOP SECRET "in camera" affidavit submitted by NSA officials in response to the 1980 FOIA suit of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy vs. National Security Agency, which I included to demonstrate to the court the government's continuing secrecy policies on UFO information.

Next came the process of serving the petition upon the Air Force and of filing the original copy with the court's clerk via U. S. mail. I thus managed to accomplish both chores without venturing beyond my own neighborhood.

As I said earlier, the petition project had surprises for all concerned, including me. My chief surprise centered on the court's decision to accept the case as if it had originated from a major law firm or from a seasoned practitioner of constitutional law. And the surprise would continue all the way into the formal, David-vs.-Goliath hearing convened by Judge Gasch on that fateful day of July 28, 1983.

Before the hearing, I'd notified various news media about its scheduling. Reporters, print and broadcast, arrived on time to fill the several dozen seats available in Gasch's small courtroom. My late brother, in the company of another Baltimore artist (Beverly Linley, a certified courtroom sketch artist), claimed a front-row seat for the proceedings.

At the courtroom's entrance, I fielded a couple of reporters' questions just as the government's platoon of litigators began arriving. Chief among them was one Royce C. Lamberth, the assistant U. S. attorney assigned to my case. Upon realizing my identity, he self-confidently handed me an eight-page, double-spaced document, which turned out to the government's motion to have the petition summarily dismissed.

If It Please the Court

As H-hour (hearing hour) approached, I gingerly accepted Lamberth's document and strolled past the crowd of spectators toward my seat at the petitioner's table a few yards in front of the judge's bench. There, I added the document to my own folder of papers and proceeded to do a little observing of my own. My adrenaline level rose as I noticed a couple of uniformed USAF field-grade officers taking up their post just 20 feet or so opposite mine. "Sent here from the Pentagon's lawyer pool," I concluded.

"Oyez, oyez!" The honorable court called itself to order. Whereupon we all rose as Senior Judge Gasch entered, took his seat, and gazed blandly upon the fully packed pews.

He addressed me: "Mr Bryant?" And I responded by fully identifying myself and explaining that I'd just been handed the government's response to my petition -- and that I'd had no chance to peruse it. He graciously asked if I'd like to take a few minutes to read through the document. I replied, "Yes, sir, I certainly would."

Ad so it had come to this: there I sat surrounded by seasoned professionals in civil litigation, by news reporters hardened by realities of inside-the-Beltway politicking, and by curious onlookers seeking a circus atmosphere perhaps at my expense. To minimize the chances of my falling prey to that latter group, I resolved to keep my eyes glued to Lamberth's document, daring not to disturb, in any way, the hush that descended upon the assemblage as I went through the motions of digesting the government's motion. "Just focus on the task at hand," I counseled myself, "and let the process play itself out."

After several minutes reading and flipping through the pages, I stood and faced the judge -- much as if I were a high-school student trying to justify to the principal my habitual tardiness or some other misdemeanor. "Your honor, it looks as though the government's objecting to the petition on the grounds that I lack 'legal standing' to bring this case before you," I gallantly protested. But even though I was unable at the moment to prove that the court had jurisdiction over the government's alleged sequestering/mishandling of the confiscated alien bodies, and though I was also unable to prove I had the bodies' commission to represent them in this proceeding, I nevertheless explained that the whole purpose of the petition was to arrive at that determination (i. e., to perform a citizen's disarrest under the presumption, based on Stringfield's expose monograph, that the sought-for-bodies existed SOMEWHERE within official U. S. confines, and to gain access to those bodies and/or their survivors for the purpose of preserving their habeas-corpus rights).

Upon hearing my term "citizen's disarrest," Gasch asked me to explain. And I tried to do so by describing this corollary to the legal authority allowing any citizen to arrest the perpetrator of a felony: if the citizen does indeed have that power, then the reverse should apply -- the citizen's power to compel the government to cease its unlawful detention of a given entity. But Gasch shook his head over such a novel premise. With that, I decided that the inevitable outcome lay only a few steps away -- toward Mr. Lamberth's table.

Even so, I continued to stand my ground by trying to let Stringfield's document speak for itself as the "smoking gun" evidence that should persuade any judge to grant my petition on behalf of the detained "space aliens." Here, Gasch chided me -- first by pointing out that Len's document had an incorrect format/authentication for his acceptance as formal evidence, and then by asking me, "Do you have anything besides smoke?" My response might have been useful in a grand-jury proceeding (which has the authority to receive and evaluate hearsay evidence), but here it was destined to fall on deaf ears. I pointed out that certain current and former military persons privy to crashed-UFO lore and to retrieved UFOnauts chose not to come forward because they had yet to be released from their oaths of secrecy.

Irrelevant, declared Lamberth in his oral rejoinder. Sidestepping the whole issue of disclosability and possible discovery, he adhered to the game plan articulated in his document: attack my lack of standing and then move on to more nearly terrestrial concerns within the court's docket.

Just a few minutes later, Gasch granted the government's motion to have the petition denied, thus closing another early chapter in America's UFO-oriented citizenry's struggle for greater UFO freedom of information and accountability.

Media Interest

But in the Court of Public Opinion, the jury is still deliberating, fueled by a firestorm of news media interest in the case. During the weeks leading up to, and shortly after, the hearing before Judge Gasch, reports from far and wide weighed in on the novelty and audacity of the lawsuit. Here's a sampling:

* Reuter's News Wire Service: "Writ Filed Seeking UFO Alien Remains"; July 14, 1983, Washington. Written by reporter Chris Hansen, this short dispatch became the initial print-media treatment of the petition, resulting in a pickup via Mutual Radio News and, on July 14, via TV broadcast of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.

* Associated Press (AP) News Wire Service: "Suit Says Air Force Holding ETs"; July 15, Washington.

* USA Today: "UFO Buffs Are up in the Air about . . . a Petition for a Writ . . ."; July 15, Washington. A front-page, breaking-news item based on the research of reporter Carol Atwater.

* Scripps-Howard News Service (Washington office): Reporter Lance Gay's write-up gets carried in the Cincinnati Post for July 15 under the title "Air Force Keeping E.T. on Ice, Citizen Charges." That front-page banner headline offers this lead-in: "The Pentagon has been given 60 days to come up with the body of E.T." The piece erroneously refers to the petition as the "writ" itself; the term writ applies to a documentary order issued by the judge upon his approval of the petition. Note: in the paper's late edition for July 15, Post staffer Anne Cohen localized the story with this front-page headline: "E.T.'s on Ice, and Cincinnati [Ohio] Man Knows Why" (referring to Cincinnatian Len Stringfield, who was sought out for commentary about his own research).

* United Press International (UPI) News Wire Service, as published on July 15 by the Trentonian (Trenton, N. J.): "Group Sues for Release of ETs Captured by Feds." The story misidentifies the petitioner as "JOHN Bryant," who is quoted from a telephone interview as saying, "What our petition aims to do, simply, is to perform a 'citizen's disarrest' -- to make the government account, formally and fully, for their capture of one or more UFO crewmen that have had the misfortune of falling into U. S. military hands."

* Washington Post: "Human Loses Suit for Space Hostages," written by Paul M. Barrett on July 29, reviewing the petition's status hearing before Judge Gasch.

* Journal of the American Bar Association (Chicago): For her October 1983 issue, ABA Journal editor Lynn Reaves produced "E.T., Please Call (Writer Loses UFO Secrecy Suit)"; a review of the issues, personalities, and plans associated with the petition's development and aftermath.

* Omni magazine (New York): In his "UFO Updates" section for June 1984, science writer Patrick Huyghe quotes Judge Gasch, from a telephone interview, as saying the case "was imaginative, and it did create quite a bit of interest."

Aftermath

Besides responding to various domestic media contacts, I had to juggle several queries ranging from Europe to Japan. Numerous radio talk-show producers sought me out as a guest. But, as with any media feeding frenzy, their interest quickly waned with the passage of time and mundane events. Unlike the Washington Post's coverage of the Watergate scandal, no editor, producer, or "think tank" organization (not to mention the ostriches in Congress) chose to undertake an in-depth investigation of the issue. No key UFOgate whistleblowers emerged to fan the dying embers of that courtroom drama hosted by Judge Gasch. No (living) E.T. hostage managed to escape from federal captivity in order to seek justice and freedom. All we have left is this partial history of the case that could've become the gateway to compelled government disclosure.

Partial, because we have little input from the government's side. You might be wondering: just how seriously did the Air Force take the petition? Besides arranging for two of his legal eagles to attend Gasch's hearing, Air Force secretary Verne Orr also had his public affairs office geared up for developments on the news-media side.

Curious about that behind-the-scenes activity, I fired off an FOIA request for a copy of all USAF records generated in response to the petition.

As I'd expected, the USAF attorney-client-privileged records were denied me on grounds of their being exempt from release. The Air Force did furnish, however, a copy of several excerpts from its Pentagon public affairs log sheets on "significant [media] queries" about the case. In the process, they denied me access to an intra-agency memo whose release, they asserted, would reveal the "deliberative process of the Air Force." Upon my appeal of that denial, they capitulated -- thus confirming that their censorial attitude would result in a public-relations backfire.

Here's how the July 26 memo, written by AF spokesman Capt. Johnny Whitaker to his superiors, starts out:

"Per Lt. Col. Houston, AF/JA, the case isn't going away as easily as we'd hoped. It doesn't appear the court is going to routinely dismiss it as a 'crank' or 'nut' case."

For those legal scholars, sociopolitical historians, and UFOlogists desiring more details about the petition itself, you can find a photocopy of the entire document (Civil Action No. 83-1932) published as an appendix to the book "UFO Crash at Aztec," by William S. Steinman (1987).

At this point, you might ask: "So, Larry, what have you gained from this doomed-from-the-start exercise?" My answer: besides the obvious litigative, activist, and reportorial experience, I've gained a renewed appreciation for, and commitment to, the principle that government authority (particularly as regards policies and practices shrouded in excess secrecy) must remain accountable to inquiry and oversight from the general public. If that means more UFO-related lawsuits and more archival mining of official UFO data and more ferreting-out of potential UFO-coverup whistleblowers in the Cosmic Watergate -- then bring 'em on!

For the time being, let's count the habeas-corpus-E.T. petition as just another lost opportunity to hold the government accountable for what it knows (and when it knew it) about UFO reality. One of researcher William L. Moore's contacts within the UFO sanctum supposedly made the following remark about the outcome of the petition case: "What if he'd won!" -- implying that maybe the keepers of the Ultimate Secret had no damage-control plan for coping with that astronomical long shot.

"What if . . ." indeed, Bill. And what a great way to begin (and end) an essay like this one!
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After pursuing a series of UFO-related lawsuits under the U. S. Freedom of Information Act and the U. S. Constitution's First Amendment during the years since the petition's fate, UFO researcher Larry W. Bryant moved on to retirement in Alexandria, Va., where he writes from the e-mail address of overtci@cavtel.net . His 2001 book "UFO Politics at the White House: Citizens Rally 'round Jimmy Carter's Promise" now has been expanded into the 2005 edition published by Galde Press, Inc. ( http://www.galdepress.com ). His debut into UFOlogical independent writing occurred with FATE's publication in February 1964 of his article "A Hard Look at UFO News Management."

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LWB Update Note: Where Are They Now?

Today (July 10, 2008), Judge Lamberth, from a small but cushy courtroom in the annex to the U. S. district court building at Constitution Avenue and 4th Street, N. W., serves as chief judge of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court, hearing cases involving the more mundane form of alien creature -- i. e., the occasional suspected/potential terrorist.

The case's star witness-in-absentia -- Len Stringfield -- died several years later, leaving behind his legacy of UFO-crash-retrieval reports for those willing to pick up where he left off.

And Maureen O'Boyle, then anchor of the now-defunct syndicated tabloid-TV show "A Current Affair," probably has grandchildren by now and has forgotten about her narration of the program's coverage of the case.

The late James H. Heller, the attorney who handled my mid-1980 First Amendment case against my former employer (via Bryant v. Weinberger, et al.) once remarked to me that my habeas-corpus-E.T. case still engenders discussion amongst Washington litigators who happen to stumble across it.

(from the December 2007 issue of UFO Magazine)

By Larry W. Bryant

Had I not known better, I could've sworn I'd been transported, via a time-travel machine, back to the late 1950s, there in the ballroom of Washington, D.C.'s National Press Club, patiently awaiting discussion from a UFOlogical panel of international experts -- some assembled as UFO-encounter witnesses, and others as ex-official investigators of such encounters.

The ambience of the scene had all the earmarks of a gathering that readily could've been orchestrated by the late, great, 1960's-era National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). Indeed, several former NICAPians were in the audience on this Monday morning of Nov. 12, 2007. They were surrounded by about 50 news-media representatives invited to attend the event by its sponsor -- the Coalition for Freedom of Information ( http://www.freedomofinfo.org ).

The prepared testimonials being read into the record by the 14 panelists were meant to persuade the U. S. government's executive branch (ideally either the Air Force or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to spearhead an international reinvestigation of the UFO problem from the perspective of national-security readiness and public safety.

Presumably, the panelists feel that the U. S. treasury remains healthy and flexible enough to allot the necessary funding for such a long-term enterprise. But remember, folks: wasn't it the late Sen. William Proxmire who had objected to having the taxpayer pay for NASA's SETI-research project? So, imagine how some of today's congresscritters may regard the proposed public refinancing of official UFOlogy. Besides, America's colossal debt from funding tribal warfare across Planet Earth remains on a fast track toward reducing our economy to that of a Third Word nation.

What's a beleaguered UFOlogist to do?

If you agree with me that we needn't institute a USAF Project Blue Book redux, then does that course of inaction mean that our government should continue to keep the public in the dark about UFO reality and continue to consign serious UFO research to the realm of crisis management? After all, we know that Blue Book had all the scientific prestige of a high-school physics course -- its main (but latent) objective being to defuse, via public-relations spin and propaganda, the public's alleged overreaction to early reports of UFO activity.

Folks, it all comes down to one element of human interaction: trust. Today, how many of us can trust ANY federal agency with the task of determining the source, intent, and scope of the worldwide UFO presence -- and of fully sharing that information with the public? I submit that one reason for the U. S. government's resistance to reentering the overt UFO-research arena lies in the fact that such agencies as the U. S. Navy and Coast Guard know all they need to know about the UFO presence, for the time being. In this regard, the innermost desires of the Air Force/NASA remain irrelevant to the topmost UFO policymakers. Back during a post-Blue Book presidential administration, NASA formally nixed the opportunity to pick up where Blue Book had left off. I bet that, even if, say, financier George Soros were to volunteer to fund a NASA-directed probe, they'd turn him down.

I have a possibly better, more cost-effective approach than that spinning/reinventing of bureaucratic wheels. Let's first cease groveling for a hand-out from our recalcitrant public servants. Instead, let's ask the SciFi Channel (which for a few years now has had a key role in trying to shift the paradigm of so-called UFO disclosure) to create a mega-bucks monetary-reward project to entice prospective UFO-coverup whistleblowers to come forward with hard-core evidence of UFO reality. Focus the project's spotlight on former/current/future U. S. Navy personnel. Run pro-disclosure advertisements in newspapers and radio stations near key naval bases. If the resultant whistleblowers can prove prove that certain UFO evidence to which they've been privy remains classified, then that fact should be relayed to Congress so as to invoke that body's oversight prerogative (i.e., conducting open hearings on why ANY official UFO information warrants permanent classification).

Sci-Fi's management could convene a panel of distinguished judges to assess the value of any whistleblower-derived evidence. They could hold an annual reward ceremony, duly televised across the globe, honoring both the emergence of valid information and the incremental inroads into the UFO coverup. And, of course, they could claim as a business expense the cost of funding the project. Who'd lose here? -- certainly not the taxpayer, nor the whistleblower, nor any investors in the SciFi Channel. The chief losers would be the top power-hungry, short-sighted, and unconstitutionally deceptive officials running the coverup.

Meantime, let me make an atavistic return to the glory days of NICAP influence, with this observation: amidst the attenders was abductionologist Budd Hopkins. Upon greeting him during the panel's dispersal, I remarked: "Did you notice that elephant sitting right at the center of the table, being ignored by all present -- that 'elephant' we call the abduction phenomenon?" Budd offered only a quasi-shrug of his shoulders.

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Larry W. Bryant, since the mid-1980s, has had more than enough experience in crafting various whistleblower-solicitation ads for publication in the classified-ad pages of selected U. S. military-base newspapers. With a minimal success rate in placing those ads, he eventually encountered censorial resistance from the Powers that Be, resulting in his multi-year-long First Amendment lawsuit against defense officials. For a summary of that litigation, which now has entered the appeals stage to contest the government's victory at the U. S. district-court level, visit his attorney's web site: http://markskatz.com/militarycases.htm . Undeterred -- and undetained -- Bryant remains reachable at his e-mail address: overtci@cavtel.net .

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LWB Update Note (7 Jul 08):

A friend of mine recently asked me how much success my UFO-disclosure ad campaign has achieved. Here's what I told him:

"No true whistleblower ever responded to any of the 40 or so published ads. [Name deleted] did track me down to my home when he first encountered one of the ads, he being a [government employee] and, later, a co-founder of the Invisible College Press [ http://www.invispress.com -- the Woodbridge, Va.-based print-on-demand publisher that brought out the first edition (2002) of my book 'UFO Politics at the White House: Citizens Rally 'round Jimmy Carter's Promise'].

"Otherwise, all that time, effort, and money went into the black hole of public disregard (sounds like the Perils of Freelancership, eh?). But I'm sure it all helped me become a better writer. Composing such ads helps the writer realize that he must strive to tighten his prose, since he's paying to have every word of it printed.

"As I once mentioned to you, I consider the ads to be a form of political poetry."

(from the October 2006 issue of UFO Magazine)

By Larry W. Bryant

"'Leaked' evidence fuels the FOIA reactor."
-- Larry W. Bryant (April 9, 2003)

Although he doubtlessly would disagree with me that his July 27, 2006, letter to me constitutes "news" (at least that genre of "news" valuable to UFO-oriented citizens), CIA FOIA chief Scott Koch cheerfully informs me, in response to my June 5, 2006, freedom-of-information request for all CIA-housed records pertaining to UFO debunker Philip Julian Klass:

"We searched our database of previously released material and located two documents, totaling 22 pages, that mention Mr. Klass. Because copying costs were minimal, there is no charge for the enclosed documents. We trust the material will prove useful."

Neither document reveals any smoking-gun evidence of an official Klass-CIA collusion to disinform the public about UFO reality. Besides, Klass long ago had cornered the market on that brand of deception, even authoring the ironically titled book "UFOs: The Public Deceived" (Prometheus Books, 1983); so why should he have to play second fiddle to the Agency?

What's more: just as the Federal Bureau of Investigation's recently released dossier on Klass (see my column in the April 2006 issue of UFO Magazine) reveals a distinct hands-off approach to his anti-UFO ravings and schemes, so, too, does the Koch-released material reveal nothing more than a scholarly, historical-literary interest in them.

Indeed, document No. 1 has nothing at all to do with Klass's "hobby" of torpedoing UFO witnesses and UFOlogists. This two-page excerpt from the formerly SECRET, summer 1974 issue of the CIA journal Studies in Intelligence ("A collection of articles on the historical, operational, doctrinal, and theoretical aspects of intelligence") consists of a book review by someone named John C. N. Smith. The 1971 item in question: Klass's "Secret Sentries in Space," which purports to tell ". . . the story of the U. S. and Soviet reconnaissance-satellite programs, and their impact on world affairs."

Reviewer Smith credits the book's early chapters as "especially well done." However: "Following this lively beginning, the book settles into a slightly tedious and inaccurate account of how satellite reconnaissance capabilities progressed from their humble beginnings to the sophisticated 'Big Bird' of the 1970s." An "inaccurate account" in a Klass-authored product!? Who knew? Could any such inaccuracies possibly have found their way into his several UFO-pooh-pooh tomes? The answer might be inferred from Smith's observation that "Klass is not always careful to inform his readers where fact gives way to speculation."

Document No. 2, FOIA-released to the public in July 1999, happens to be another product of the "CIA Historical Review Program." Consisting of 18 pages (five of them devoted to footnotes), this report by National Reconnaissance Office historian Gerald K. Haines bears the provocative (if not news-worthy) title "A Die-Hard Issue: CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947--90." (Maybe, some day, Mr. Haines might produce a similar historical survey, to be titled, say: "Another Die-Hard Issue: CIA's Role in Thwarting the Letter and Spirit of the U. S. Freedom of Information Act.")

In any case, the only Klass-related content in Haines's report consists of several footnotes referring the reader to Klass's 1983 minimal opus "UFOs: The Public Deceived" -- plus footnote 93, which refers to Klass's declaration, in the winter 1990 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, that all the MJ-12 leaked documentation constitutes a hoax. (If that be the case, Phil, then the key questions become (1) who's doing the hoaxing -- a Merry Prankster-styled adolescent, a disgruntled/frustrated UFOlogist, or a federal official?; and (2) why are they spending so much time and effort perpetuating this voluminous "hoax"?)

I realize that my posing such probing questions to a dead man is like demanding that the Citizens Intimidation Agency cease treating taxpaying FOIA requesters as if they were the enemy du jour. Get busy, Mr. Koch, in helping build and monitor that wall for sealing the border between the United States and Mexico; and let the UFO evidence (whether it be historical, contemporary, or future) speak for itself.

Meanwhile, Koch's July 27 letter piques my curiosity on another level of intrigue: has he reversed his rejection of my June 5, 2006, FOIA-appeal letter, wherein I contest his charging me $30 to offset the records-search expenses incurred via CIA processing of one of my requests dating back to 2004? If his action signifies no such reversal, then how can he extortionately continue to refuse to fulfill my Corso-related request of May 4, 2006, while at the same time going ahead and fulfilling my Klass-related one? Maybe it's time for Mr. Koch to take his annual vacation.

And, speaking of spatial-recon activity, I wonder how many of today's spy satellites are dedicated to detecting and recording incursions of alien spacecraft into Earth's atmosphere. How about it, Mr. Haines -- when are you going to give us a history lesson on that operation?

(from the June 2006 issue of UFO Magazine)

By Larry W. Bryant

A wave of UFOnostalgia -- that chronic, acute, but non-fatal
condition besetting anyone who's ever perused a "flying
saucer" book by the late Marine Corps major (Ret.) Donald E.
Keyhoe -- should sweep over most UFOmag readers when they
get their UFO-hungry hands on the first 12 issues of the
12-page, bimonthly Journal of UFO History.

Indeed, if it weren't for Keyhoe's UFO-literature archives
(now housed lovingly at the residence of Journal
publisher-editor Richard H. Hall, who happens to have been
Keyhoe's right-hand man during the 1960s-era
National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena), we'd
probably have to look painstakingly elsewhere for the rich,
in-depth content that the Journal delivers.

I began subscribing for the Journal during a 2004 regional
MUFON meeting in Fairfax,Va. There, as featured guest
speaker, Dick Hall announced the availability of his latest
special report -- "Alien Invasion or Human
Fantasy?: The 1966-67 UFO Wave" -- published by the Fund
for UFO Research, Inc. ( http://www.fufor.com ) .

It so happens that Dick devotes the lead article in Volume 1,
Issue 2 to the "NBC TV Special on UFOs, 1966" -- concluding
the piece by noting: "Ironically, about two weeks after
this broadcast, a major wave of UFO sightings began, focused
initially in Michigan and New England. It set in motion a
series of events that led to congressional hearings, an
intensive internal review of the Air Force UFO
investigation, and establishment of the University of
Colorado UFO Project to conduct an independent study.

"Both Dr. Hynek and Dr. Menzel were invited to brief the
Colorado project scientists and staff members."
In a sense, that pivotal "series of events" has been
brought full circle by the publication of Dick's special report
and the debut of the Journal.

In Issue No. 1, Dick introduces a recurrent section called
"Historical Viewpoints," my favorite entry being this
typical put-down of UFO witnesses by Dr. Bernard Lovell, "a
prominent British astronomer and space scientist, director
of Jodrell Bank Observatory, [who] is quoted (Associated
Press, Boston Apr. 21, 1966) as saying, 'The UFOs are
natural phenomena or hoaxes. The people who see them must
be tremendous emotionalists.'" Well, to this day, such
would-be authoritative dismissal by the ranks of Scientism
continues to rankle the decidedly unemotionalist Hall. Of
course, no-one abhors more than he the various UFO-fixated
hoaxers and opportunists, not to mention disdaining those
shoot-from-the-lip scientists who dare not condescend to
putting the "UFO problem" on their official agenda.

From his days as a former columnist for both UFO Magazine
and the Mutual UFO Network's monthly journal, we all know
and appreciate Dick's persona as a walking Swiss Army knife,
able to cut through mountains of UFOlogical B.S. within a
millisecond.

In concluding his editorial for Issue No. 1, Dick sets the
tone and substance for future issues:

"A rich history exists of the popular, official, news media,
and scientific reactions to these [UFO-encounter] reports
(not to mention the reports themselves) which we propose to
present in the form of essays, commentaries, analyses,
reviews, documents, letters, photographs, and interviews."

As for the latter category of information, Issue No. 1
(March-April 2004) contains a "Dialogue with Wendy Connors"
(a specialist in preserving historical UFOlogical
audio-visual records), while No. 2 (May-June 2004) offers a
"Dialogue with Jan L. Aldrich" (a documentalist focusing,
via his "Project 1947," on the early history of UFO events).

And consider the unexpected consumer bonus here: as you
digest this trove of contemporary history, you're witnessing
the very creation of UFOlit history by a legendary figure --
a resource destined to be sought after by collectors and
scholars worldwide, long after Dick Hall takes his
equivalent of a Ph.D. degree in UFOlogy into the UFO
Research Hall of Fame.

As the proud owner of a complete set of Dick's college-days'
newsletter UFO Critical Bulletin, I salute his latest
addition to the annals of UFO research. (And, please, Dick:
find time to autograph some back issues of your Journal;
look, for example, at what various back issues of UFO
Magazine are commanding!)

Note: the Journal's annual U. S. subscription fee of $28
reduces to $25 when you sign up for two years' worth.
Make your check payable to Richard H. Hall: 4418 39th
Street, Brentwood, MD 20722; his e-mail address is:
dh12@erols.com, and his web site is:
http://www.hallrichard.com .

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Larry W. Bryant directs the Washington, D. C., office of
the public-interest group Citizens Against UFO Secrecy
from his home in Alexandria, Va., USA. He welcomes
communications from the public at his e-mail address:
overtci@cavtel.net .