
By Stanton Friedman
3-03-05
The producers in Roswell interviewed me for over an hour in July, 2004. Don Schmitt who has been active in Roswell research for many years was also interviewed. He and a film crew actually went out to the site, which was marked out for more archeological digging. I believe about 30 seconds of my interview was shown with none of Don’s nor of the scientific work site. I had been cautiously optimistic after hearing a few weeks before the showing that I had made the cut, but that 100 people had not. My optimism decreased when I heard that Seth Shostak, Frank Drake, and Jill Tartar, (SETI Specialists) and Michael Shermer, skeptic, were going to be on. Despite all their writing about SETI, it was clear that none knew anything about UFOs. Proclamation is not the same as investigation. I had jokingly told people that, after all, Peter Jennings and I were both dual citizens of the USA and Canada and, surprisingly, both had been born on July 29. How could I not trust him? I didn’t place enough emphasis on the fact that Benito Mussolini was also born on July 29.
I was favorably impressed with the first portion with interviews with aircraft crewmembers, comments about Blue Book’s focus on explaining away sightings and the interview with Major Friend whom I had met at Blue Book in the early 1960s. The second half of the show was like a horror film. The SETI people waxed poetic about their wonderful search for ET Signals. There was no indication of any knowledge of UFOs other than one of the sillier moments of the show when Jill Tartar described having a sighting of the moon partially obscured by clouds. This was worth recreating?? One can see why the SETI people don’t want to deal with eyewitness testimony. I think one could also see why I say that SETI stands for Silly Effort to Investigate and why I talk of the cult of SETI: Charismatic hand waving, very strong dogma (they must be out there, they can’t be coming here, we will make the most important discovery in Man’s history a signal from a distant civilization, and nobody could possibly come here… if they did, we would be out of a job) and strong irrational claims about the absence of evidence. Meaning “we don’t dare review it”. Dr. Tyson joined the crowd and proclaimed that eyewitness testimony may be OK in court, but not in science. Tell Jane Goodall that.
Several time PJ used the term mainstream science along with a proclamation about its non-acceptance of UFO reality. No evidence was presented. It appears that the only mainstream science he was talking about was astronomy. Think of chemists, biologists, and geologists, us physicists, etc. Much of science today was based on eyewitness testimony of something unusual. Think Roentgen and X rays. I believe that most mainstream scientists like me believe that the methodology has to suit the problem. Unpredictable, brief appearances of strange craft (not under the control of the observer or of Mother nature) behaving in strange ways require eyewitness testimony as of course do airplane crashes, crimes, etc. Shostak proclaims when he finds a signal they will tell everybody else who will then verify it and anybody can use his own antenna .. What happens if the transmission stops? How many can afford their own Hat Creek Telescope. System? Does he think the signal will be “Testing 1, 2” repeated over and over again? That we can order the saucer to stop while we do measurements?
PJ claimed that mainstream science doesn’t accept the UFO evidence. This was yet another misrepresentation. Polls have consistently shown that the greater the education the more likely to accept UFO reality. Two polls of R and D people showed that about 2/3 of them who expressed an opinion said flying saucers were real. But then they live in the real world unlike the SETI Cultists.
The program contained, as might be expected based on past experience, a major put down on star travel from people who know absolutely nothing about space travel. We were told that the Voyageur spacecraft, our fastest space craft launched 30 years ago, will take 73,000 years to reach the nearest star and that the fastest man made object goes only 11 miles per second compared to the speed of light at 186,000 miles per sec. Wow! Sounds like we sure can’t get there from here. These are both totally misleading. The Voyageur hasn’t been attached to a propulsion system since it left the vicinity of the earth!! It is coasting. This is like tossing a bottle into the ocean as a basis for estimating crossing time for the Queen Mary 2 or the SST or the space station.
We physicists have accelerated particles in the vacuum chambers of expensive accelerators to speeds of 99.99 % of the speed of light. 11mps is absurd. Space is a very large vacuum chamber. These totally misleading comments rank on a par with Dr. Simon Newcombe’s claim in October, 1903, (2 months before the Wright Brothers first flight) that the only way man would fly would be with the help of a balloon. Dr. Bickerton in the 1920s proved “scientifically” that it would be impossible to provide enough energy to put anything into orbit. Dr. Campbell in 1941 “Scientifically” calculated that the required initial launch weight of a rocket able to get a man to the moon and back would be a million million tons. He was, because of his total ignorance about space flight, off by a factor of 300,000,000. All three were, like the SETI cultists, astronomers. With this track record, why believe any of their proclamations? I was involved more than 40 years ago in work on a fusion propulsion system able to eject particles having 10 million times as much energy per particle as in a chemical rocket. This of course was not presented. After all, I was just a promoter.
A real hatchet job was done on Budd Hopkins in the show’s segment on UFO abductions. The witnesses were OK, but then we have the off the wall proclamations about sleep paralysis being the explanation coupled with hypnosis to generate false testimony from the witnesses. All the data provided by Budd about the fact that many abductions don’t take place in bed (Think Betty and Barney Hill, Travis Walton, etc), that there are many cases when more than one person is abducted (is sleep paralysis contagious?), that at least 30% of abduction investigations do not involve hypnosis, was left on the cutting room floor. Budd has worked with over 600 abductees. Had the 2 Harvard psychologists worked with more than a dozen? Why wasn’t any of Harvard psychiatrist John Mack’s interview run? The pronouncement that there is no benefit of hypnosis in memory enhancement is false. Phil Klass made the same claim to me, but stopped when I provided an article about a stonemason being able, under hypnosis, to describe tiny details on a particular stone that he had placed years earlier.
Finally we have the Roswell segment. I was introduced as a Roswell promoter.The term used twice. There was no mention of that fact that I was a nuclear physicist who had worked for the likes of GE, GM, Westinghouse etc. The totally unjustifiable term Myth was used at least twice.PJ should be ashamed. Jesse Marcel junior was filmed. There was no mention of the fact that he is a medical doctor, a Flight surgeon Colonel in the reserve, and serving in Iraq despite being 67. His father was called an intelligence officer, but without adding that the group was the most elite military group in the world, the 509th, which had dropped the A, bombs on Japan. Don’t these facts go to credibility? Of course I am a Roswell promoter. based on 27 years of research and investigation and the outlay of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours and finding loads of supporting testimony. all ignored by the noisy negativists and none presented in the program.
At the request of the producers I had provided a total of 57 videos from which they used a few clips. One video was the 105 minute “Recollections of Roswell”, which included testimony from 27witness including Retired General Thomas Jefferson DuBose. He told me of taking the call from General Clements McMullen head of SAC who was the boss of 8th Air Force Commander Roger Ramey (who was DuBose’s boss) saying to get the press off their back, send some wreckage up here today, and never talk about it again.
For reasons unknown they had historian Robert Goldberg tell the Roswell tale although he was seriously in error in his description of Roswell in his book about conspiracies and on the show. They gave Karl Pflock quite a bit of time with his Roswell debunking They blindly accepted the Mogul Balloon explanation even though there is no evidence to support it, the materials characteristics don’t match witness testimony, the dates and locations are wrong. They stressed the high security for Mogul… vastly overstated since several launches were allowed to just drop in the desert, no chase planes or ground teams. At least the Crash test dummies weren’t paraded. I have dealt with all the objections in my MUFON 2003 paper “Critiquing the Roswell Critics”.
The real promoters on the show were the SETI cultists with their myths. They have no evidence of any kind that there is anybody out there, that there are signals being sent, that they can receive and interpret such signals if there are any, using our primitive technology. An AM radio can’t pick up FM signals. They can’t admit that there is overwhelming evidence of alien visitation.
It appears that the producers were perfectly willing to present some interesting testimony though they left out things like Project Blue Book Special Report 14,or other large scale scientific studies, the statement by AF General Carroll Bolender that reports of UFOs which could effect national Security were not part of the blue Book system. But the three areas of investigation that clearly together establish both the cover-up and that the planet is being visited (Roswell and the abductions and the fact that interstellar travel is feasible with reasonable trip times) were trashed. Sounds like when push came to shove they lacked any courage at all. It was nice to give a neat segment at the end of the program to Michio Kaku saying that maybe visitors are well ahead of us and can warp space and time. Fusion propulsion systems are much closer in time. Blacked out and whited out government UFO documents force one to the conclusion that the government is not just incompetent with Blue Book, but lying through its teeth.
Perhaps I should mention that only 11.6 million people watched the show. The unsolved Mysteries program on NBC in 1989 about Roswell was seen by over 28 million people the first time around and 30 million the second time.
Particularly irritating was the frequent mention of lights in the sky, billions of stars, absence of physical evidence. There was not even the slightest mention of Ted Phillips’ 3000 + excellent physical trace countries from 90 countries. Why show Chris McKay digging in desert dirt and not the traces left by a UFO?
Frankly I was also bothered by the proclamations by nasty noisy negativist retired USAF officer James McGaha. We had a full-scale debate in Tennessee. The video is noted at my website www.stantonfriedman.com . It is easy to say we need both sides. But is that true when one does his research by investigation and the other does it by proclamation?
Stan Friedman fsphys@rogers.com .
Excellent review by Friedman. It appears the Jennings show was, in part one, a history lesson on UFO's, and in part 2 a dismissel of Roswell (perhaps forced on ABC?)abductions, and another tiring speil by SETI showing how to waste private funding while placing your head up your ass.
ReplyDeleteMr Friedman is one of the few that I respect and admire when it comes down to who or what to believe. I have been covering the UFO saga for many years now and became realy interested some 40 years ago after seeing a disc shaped object travelling from the west to the east at high altitude over Wigan Lancashire England.
ReplyDeleteA large body of scientist still go about with their blinkers on and to give such people Television air time is a pure waste of time and money, this Jennings show is a prime candidate to be booted straight into the trash can.
People like Jennings keep coming up with the old re hashed rubbish that has been shown on Television many times over it,s about time that we the public at large were treated with more respect and not as mindless morons.
In regards to SETI, anyone with a brain would realise that they are only their to give credibility to those spreading disinformation, so who takes notice of them anyway?
Here in England we now know the truth through various documents that have been released under the freedom of Information Act. The French, Belgians, Russians and a number of South American countries now know the truth.
What puzzles me is what will it take for America to accept the Truth. The truth is not just out there, it is ever present and with us now, as attested by the many thousands that keep coming face to face with it, ordinary everyday people,seeing these objects and photographing or videoing them almost every day throughout the world.
We don't need scientist to tell us they are not real, we know they are real ,as real as the reality we all share. All we need from them is for them to put some flesh on to the bones and give some honest answers as to the nature and intent of these beings.
God bless you Mr Friedman.
Once again Dr.Friedman scores high marks for his insite of the whole UFO issue. A great man once said," The course of natural science can not be dictated by preconceived idea's"[Dr.Wilhelm Reich]The same should apply to the honest investigation with regard to UFO's / ET's. While the good folks at SETI started out with good intentions of finding ET via radio signals, it seems that thay have been corrupted by politics, money and very preconceived idea's with regard to there job security. In fact finding ET's via radio signals may very well be like finding chicken teeth, ET may not even use radio frequency's as a method of communication. Why then do the so called scientist at SETI preconcieve that radio frequency's should be the cosmic standard? / That in itself seems to be narrow-minded, self defeating and arrogant. Obviously, the SETI people do not want to think outside of there safe and secure little box. Like Dr. Friedman there are many people out here that can see beyond the bias that we are fed on a daily basis to control what we think and keep us dumbed down. I thank Dr. Friedman for having the integrity to help rise our awareness above that.
ReplyDeleteDr. Friedman is quite correct in his assessment of that ABC thing that Jennings did, that was not even up to high school student's standards. Jenning's should stick to what he does best, reading a teleprompter!
ReplyDeleteThe heavy handed insertion of SETI into the program really made me realize that the whole thing was just another set up to put down the subject of UFO's. Guess what? [ It did not work ]
SETI is a giant sponge that sucks up money and produces little in the way of results and like one comment by "Altitudelou" stated, why is it that the scientoids at SETI think that radio frequencys are the cosmic standard, [great point]. Any alien civilization having the technology and capability of traveling light years might very well think that radio frequncys are prehistoric and use something completely different and ALIEN to us! [ Think about that, it makes sense ]
Those that think we[the earth] is somehow the center of all that is, the begining and the end are truly pathetic, we are not even the center of this tiny little galaxy, let alone in a cosmic sense.
If anything, the Jennings UFO special just conirmed that indeed, Alien's have,are and will no doubt continue to visit this planet as a lot of people[like Jennings] are going to a lot of time and expense to quiet the issue down.
Thankfully there are people like Dr. Friedman leading more and more people to stand up to the disinfomation and demand that the truth be told,the truth about UFO's can not be kept in the closet anylonger, To many people are seeing them and reporting them.
Do you suppose if alien's were to land on the White House lawn for a photo-op with old G.W. Bush, Jennings would be commissioned to do another special to expose it as a hoax, probably!
We would no doubt here from the government scientoids that the whole thing was just samp gas, the planet Venus, the moon or clouds blown together by the wind but we would all know better.
The reality is that the powers that be are loosing control over the information that is coming out and it's pure panic that is making them put out stuff like this Jennings special but people are not buying it anymore and that's a good thing!:}
I respectfully disagree with Stan. My thoughts can be found at www.redstarfilms.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeletePaul Kimball
P.S. Stan will be the first to tell you that it's Mr. Friedman, not Dr., although perhaps someday some university will have the good sense to give him an honourary Phd.
Ah yes,A common mistake that even I make in referring to Mr. Freidman as Dr. Friedman.
ReplyDeleteOne assumes that a noted nuclear physicist would have "Dr." before and "Phd" after there name.
Oop's !
I watched the Peter Jennings special fairly certain that it would be a hatchet job on objectivity concerning the ufo subject. I was right on the money unfortunately. Since Jennings passed away 2 years ago or so I will not disparage him personally but the show was an absolute disgrace! Sincerely, Hans in New Hampshire-U.S. Navy veteran
ReplyDeleteAs usual Friedman makes points. I believe the section of documentary or the mockery SETI boys may have been due to a serious lack of ufological research experience by the PRODUCER. Then verified by the lowly rated Star Status debunkers who know less than the Producer.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly not the first time we've seen experienced Researchers cut and know-nothings pasted. And that, my serious and experienced researcher friends, go's directly to a non-experienced documentary Producer.
Scott